As you have said " photovoltaic power plant" the answer to this question can be quite complex and describing it here, in detail, is not practical.

Firstly one much specify the type of system or plant and detail the requirements.

1. Autonomous stand alone system with some sought of storage.

Or

2. A grid connected system

3. The amount of energy that is consumed on a daily basis. A load energy audit would be prudent.

4. The available solar energy will change with the seasons where it will be minimal in winter so the system may be sized for the winter and excess power in summer may be shed into hot water heating or an AC plant. Using winter insolation for the calculations will yield a larger system than using the insolation numbers for summer.

5. The geometry of the array and its pointing will have to be taken into account. The ideal setup with no shading gives the smallest array. If one wants to minimise the amount of silicon then tracking will be of use. If you are averse to mechanical tracking then, with the addition of extra panels and suitable geometry one may have "pseudo tracking" which is much more robust mechanically.

So you see the question is very simple but the answer will involve doing a system design the end result of which will give an area of pv solar cells.

Here is an idea. We can go through the answer on a conversational basis and see if we can come up with a good answer, you provide the basic information and we take it from there.

1. Is the system stand alone or will it be connected to the power grid ?

2. How much energy is consumed in winter and how much in summer?

Eg. On a day in summer solar provides 60% of my total energy and some of the excesss is kept for night time use. On a winter day the tables are turned and solar provides 40% of the total energy and the excess is stored for the longer nights.

3. What is your approximate latitude and longitude?

Please remember it is all about energy!

12.9202° N, 79.1333° E

A grid connected system.

Solar insolation - 700 watt/m^2

Here is an easy way - use the Sunny Design software from SMA. It should give you a good idea of what parameters are required and the solar PV configurations available. The results are quite accurate and is free to download and use. http://www.sma.de/en/products/plant-planning/sunny-design.html

Ok on the grid connection. This , initially, makes our life simpler.

I used your lat/lon to get an estimate of the solar energy available, on a monthly basis, from : http://www.nrel.gov/rredc/pvwatts/grid.html

The location closest to you is at lat/ lon = 22.65 N / 88.45E (Madras). On pvwatts .

The following table has 2 columns ... Col 1 is the month 1,2, 3 ..... 12

Col 2 is Energy (kWh) .M^-2 . Day^-1

1. 4.86

2. 5.43

3. 6.0

4. 6.08

5. 5.57

6. 4.56

7. 4.00

8. 4.26

9. 4.31

10. 4.89

11. 4.70

12. 4.72

Average = 4.94 kWh. M^-2. t^-1 ... t is in days

The above energies are a very good starting point and apply to an ideally setup flat array tilted at an angle equal to the latitude angle.

As you can see there is much variability of the available solar energy as a function of month.

We need to know, now, the amount of energy consumed. As we are using a grid connected system we need to know how much power is consumed during the day time. If excess energy is generated then this will be exported for use by other users. So we can match the array size such that the energy consumed and generated are matched.

OK, PART 1 over please give an estimate of day time energy consumed.

You are, at present, ahead of what is currently being thought of. I am going through the methodology of system design.

Regulatory issues do not enter into the design at this stage as we have not even determined the fundamentals of this particular system as yet.

All the issues you mentioned will be addressed in the fullness of time if the client proceeds further. Currently we are only addressing the question as to what is the area of silicon.

About modelling. I have modelled a pv system based on the deterministic variables. The model in ( MATLAB) will give the daily output of a fixed or 2 axis ( 1 dimension fixed) tracker and gives very good correspondence with the current installation. I am currently investing the slowly varying environmental clear day conditions - Using the LOWTRAN atmospheric transmissiion models and investing Mie scattering associated with uniform cloud cover. Yes! i monitor the local environment via a Davis weather station. Current on going research involves monitoring of 15 geographically separated systems as reported on the website pvoutput.org. Some of these are optimal and some not optimal.

Currently work is done to look at complex 3D arrays - to suite a given architecture. The consequence of not getting it right is to waste considerable funds!! Research in this context is " cheap".

Look at this website: You can create any PV installation anywhere in the world. Just register to the website for 30 days as a trailer.

HelioScope: Advanced Solar Design

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_to_compute_the_power_output_per_unit_area_of_solar_PV_installations

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2013/08/calculating-solar-energys-land-use-footprint.html

http://www.raymaps.com/index.php/how-to-calculate-the-area-required-by-solar-panels/