Simulation-Based Assessment of Solar Photovoltaic Potential Using PvSyst for Powering a Poultry Farm in Kassiapleu (Man, Western Côte d’Ivoire)

Abstract

Reliable electricity is essential for poultry-house lighting, ventilation, water supply, refrigeration, and incubation, particularly in rural areas with limited or unstable grid access. This study assessed the solar resource at Kassiapleu, near Man in western Côte d’Ivoire, and simulated a stand-alone photovoltaic (PV)-battery system using PvSyst 8.0.15. Monthly meteorological inputs were generated from the Meteonorm dataset available through PvSyst for the site coordinates. The poultry-farm load inventory yielded daily demands of 567.974 kWh during the brooding phase and 54.624 kWh during the grower phase. Because production-cycle durations were not available in the design inputs, the annual simulation was interpreted as a conservative design-basis scenario in which the higher brooding-phase load was applied throughout the year, corresponding to an annual load of 207,311 kWh. Preliminary sizing at a target probability of loss of load of 5% indicated 148.916 kWp; however, the final roof-compatible configuration comprised 200 monocrystalline 585 Wp modules (117 kWp) occupying 547 m² of the 600 m² roof area. The simulated annual global horizontal irradiation was 2,034.4 kWh/m², with approximately 195.6 MWh of available solar energy, a specific yield of 1,672 kWh/kWp/year, and an annual performance ratio of 0.779. The system supplied 186,543 kWh to the load, leaving 20,767 kWh unmet and producing a solar fraction of 0.900. These simulation results indicate a strong site solar resource but also show that the roof-constrained configuration does not fully satisfy the conservative high-load design case. Further optimisation of generation, storage, load scheduling, or hybrid backup would be required for higher supply reliability.