Study of the application potential of photovoltaic direct-driven air conditioners in different climate zones

Abstract The existing calculation and evaluation methods for photovoltaic directly driven air conditioners (PVAC) are often based on a long timescale without considering the short-term rapid fluctuations of environmental parameters. This study proposes a comprehensive method for evaluating real-time zero energy potentials of PVACs. Firstly, an optimal determination method for PV size from the timely energy matching perspective was discussed. Then, the energy generation and consumption based on different time scales in different climate regions were simulated and analyzed. Finally, the zero-energy potentials of PVACs with the optimal PV size in different climate regions were investigated. The potentials were evaluated based on the indices of hourly self-sufficiency, hourly self-consumption, zero energy probability, and PV generation utilization. Besides these indicators, a graphical approach was also provided to enable the visualization of the real-time energy matching performance of PVACs. The results showed that different climatic conditions had significant effects on energy matching performance. Under the premise that the total PV generation can fully meet the electricity consumption of air conditioner, the number of hours that PVAC, without assistance, can realize real-time zero energy consumption only accounts for 26.40% of the whole year in Shenyang and 37.17% in Shanghai. To summarize, the method and indicators for optimizing PV capacity and evaluating dynamic energy matching for different climate zones were proposed from the perspective of achieving real-time zero energy.