Solar PV Systems: Photovoltaic Design, Installation & MPPT

A photovoltaic array rarely underperforms because the panels were wrong. It underperforms because the string was sized at the wrong ambient temperature, the shading study was optimistic, the cable run was too long, or the inverter clips every afternoon in July.

Solar looks simple from the outside — panels, an inverter, a meter. The engineering sits in the decisions nobody sees on the finished installation: how the resource was assessed, how the array was configured, what the protection scheme assumes, and whether the economics still work once the losses are honest.

In this course you will work a PV system from the solar resource through to grid connection — resource assessment and sizing, electrical design, maximum power point tracking, protection and safety, cell technology and loss mechanisms, economics, storage and grid integration, and how solar projects are actually run.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN TO DO

By the end of this course you will be able to:

· Assess a site's solar resource from insolation data, sun path and a shading study

· Size a PV system from the load, and select panel, array configuration and inverter to match

· Calculate DC and AC power, voltage drop and cable size for a PV installation

· Configure maximum power point tracking and select a controller or inverter for the array

· Specify a protection scheme — isolation, overcurrent, surge, earthing, ground and arc fault

· Compare monocrystalline, polycrystalline and thin-film technologies on efficiency and cost

· Quantify the losses that separate nameplate output from delivered energy

· Build the business case using levelised cost of energy, payback and net present value

· Design grid-tied, off-grid and hybrid arrangements, and size battery storage for each

· Run a solar project from feasibility through permitting, construction and commissioning

HOW THE COURSE IS TAUGHT

· Seventeen lectures across six sections, three hours in total, built in the order a system is actually designed

· Sizing and electrical calculations worked through rather than stated, so the numbers can be reproduced

· Industry design tools introduced by name — PVsyst, Helioscope and SAM — so you know what the workflow looks like before you open one

· Two full course examinations at the end

· Economics worked using the United States market, where the incentives and tariff structures are clearest; the method transfers to any market once the local figures are substituted

· No software, licence or purchase is needed to follow along

· Every presentation is included as a downloadable PDF, so you keep the slides as a desk reference after the course

WHAT IS COVERED

· Where solar sits in the global energy system, and how the technology got here

· Photovoltaic fundamentals — how a cell produces power and what limits it

· Solar resource assessment — insolation, sun path, solar angles and shading

· System sizing — load calculation, panel selection, array configuration, performance estimation

· Design tools and what each is used for

· Electrical design — DC and AC power, voltage drop, wire sizing, overcurrent protection, earthing

· Maximum power point tracking — algorithms, controllers, tracking efficiency and selection

· Protection and safety — isolation, surge, ground fault and arc fault protection

· Silicon cell technology, thin film, and emerging materials including perovskites

· Efficiency limits and loss mechanisms — temperature, spectral, reflection, resistive, degradation

· Real-world design for residential, commercial and utility-scale projects

· Economics — levelised cost of energy, payback, net present value, incentives and financing models

· Grid integration, interconnection, net metering and battery storage

· Running a solar project, and case studies across rooftop, commercial and solar farm deployments

WHO THIS IS FOR

· Electrical and mechanical engineers moving into photovoltaic and renewable energy work

· Solar installation technicians and electricians adding design and system engineering

· Energy professionals, facility managers and sustainability officers appraising solar proposals

· Entrepreneurs setting up solar installation or renewable energy consulting businesses

· Engineering students and graduates building expertise in photovoltaic systems

· Homeowners and self-builders designing their own installation properly rather than by rule of thumb

ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTOR

I am a Chartered Engineer (CEng MIMechE) with over fifteen years in oil and gas, energy and industrial infrastructure, across a range of projects and disciplines.

For more than five years I have also been teaching. Close to twenty thousand engineers have taken my courses, which hold an average rating of 4.26 across the catalogue.

I build these courses because I am genuinely interested in how engineering works and why it fails, and because most technical subjects are taught far worse than they need to be. My aim every time is to produce the course I would have wanted when I first met the subject — practical, honest about what actually matters, and free of the padding that wastes your time.

REQUIREMENTS

No prior solar experience is required — photovoltaic principles are built up from the start. A basic understanding of electricity and energy helps, and comfort with basic algebra covers every calculation. No software, licence or purchase is needed.

85 PRACTICE QUESTIONS

Every section ends with a quiz built around realistic scenarios, so you test your understanding as you go and reinforce what you have learned. Each answer comes with a short explanation.

START NOW

Enrol today and work through it at your own pace, with every presentation available as a downloadable PDF, lifetime access and every future update included.