GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT
In this paper, comparative evaluation of photovoltaic energy potential of five different
beaches in Nigeria is presented. The Nigerian beaches considered are Ibeno Beach in
Akwa Ibom state, Otuogu Beach in Asaba Delta state, Nkonmo-Oyenghe Beach in Cross
River state, Lagos Bar Beach in Lagos state and Port Harcourt Tourist Beach in Rivers
state. The metrological data for the five beaches are obtained from NASA SSE website
based on the latitude and longitude data of each site. Nalytical expressions are used to
determine the actual yearly energy yield, performance ratio and specific energy yield for
each of the sites. The results showed that Nkonmo-Oyenghe Beach has the highest ideal
yearly energy yield of 1861.5 kWh , the highest actual yearly energy yield of 1475.387
kWh and the highest specific energy yield of 1475.387 kWh/k and the lowest
performance ratio of 79.2579%. Also, the actual energy yield at Nkonmo-Oyenghe
Beach is about 18% above that at Port Harcourt Tourist Beach which had the lowest
yearly energy yield buts highest performance ratio of 80.778 %. The high energy yield
at Nkonmo-Oyenghe Beach can be attributed to the high annual average insolation
which is about 20 higher than that at Port Harcourt Tourist Beach. In all, the ranking of
PV energy potential of the five beaches is as follows; Nkonmo-Oyenghe Beach, Cross
Rivers State (1st), Otuogu Beach Asaba, Delta State (2nd), Lagos Bar Beach, Lagos
State (3rd), Eket Ibeno Beach, Akwa Ibom State (4th) and Port Harcourt Tourist Beach,
Rivers State (5th).