Empowering the steel industry with solar: Sustainable energy for a greener future

Steel manufacturing is an energy-intensive industry that grappling with rising electricity costs and substantial carbon emissions. While renewable energy is gaining attention, the integration of large-scale industrial solar photovoltaic (PV) systems remains challenging due to space constraints, fluc...

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Main Authors: Farzana, Dusuki, Roziah, Zailan, Fatin Zafirah, Mansur, Khairulnadzmi, Jamaluddin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/44543/
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author Farzana, Dusuki
Roziah, Zailan
Fatin Zafirah, Mansur
Khairulnadzmi, Jamaluddin
author_facet Farzana, Dusuki
Roziah, Zailan
Fatin Zafirah, Mansur
Khairulnadzmi, Jamaluddin
author_sort Farzana, Dusuki
building UMP Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Steel manufacturing is an energy-intensive industry that grappling with rising electricity costs and substantial carbon emissions. While renewable energy is gaining attention, the integration of large-scale industrial solar photovoltaic (PV) systems remains challenging due to space constraints, fluctuating energy demands, and financial limitations. Most existing research focuses on small-scale commercial and residential solar installations. It leaves a gap in large-scale industrial systems, which require customized stringing, adaptive inverter sizing, and optimized DC/AC ratios. This research explores how to design an optimized large-scale rooftop PV system for steel manufacturing to maximize performance and profitability. The methodology involves designing and simulating a 2.8 MWp rooftop solar PV system using PVsyst software. Following this, technology selection, technical performance, economic, environmental, and sensitivity analyses were conducted. The performance ratio analysis identified a 1.43 DC/AC ratio as optimal, achieving a PR of 81.67 %. A comparative analysis between self-consumption (SELCO) and Net Offset Virtual Aggregation (NOVA) demonstrated that SELCO is the superior option, yielding RM 7.87 million in annual savings with a 9.5-month payback period. Electricity consumption of 312,417.25 kWh/month contributes to a greenhouse gas emission reduction of approximately 236.81 tons CO2-eq. The sensitivity analysis revealed that as DC voltage drop increased from 2.70 % to 3.30 %, energy output declined, leading to a simultaneous rise in DC losses from 0.78 % to 1.14 %.These findings highlighted large-scale solar PV as a viable decarbonization strategy. Additionally, the design integrates technical performance, financial, and environmental factors into a holistic framework to facilitate solar PV adoption in heavy industries.
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spelling ump-445432025-10-06T07:53:41Z https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/44543/ Empowering the steel industry with solar: Sustainable energy for a greener future Farzana, Dusuki Roziah, Zailan Fatin Zafirah, Mansur Khairulnadzmi, Jamaluddin T Technology (General) TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery Steel manufacturing is an energy-intensive industry that grappling with rising electricity costs and substantial carbon emissions. While renewable energy is gaining attention, the integration of large-scale industrial solar photovoltaic (PV) systems remains challenging due to space constraints, fluctuating energy demands, and financial limitations. Most existing research focuses on small-scale commercial and residential solar installations. It leaves a gap in large-scale industrial systems, which require customized stringing, adaptive inverter sizing, and optimized DC/AC ratios. This research explores how to design an optimized large-scale rooftop PV system for steel manufacturing to maximize performance and profitability. The methodology involves designing and simulating a 2.8 MWp rooftop solar PV system using PVsyst software. Following this, technology selection, technical performance, economic, environmental, and sensitivity analyses were conducted. The performance ratio analysis identified a 1.43 DC/AC ratio as optimal, achieving a PR of 81.67 %. A comparative analysis between self-consumption (SELCO) and Net Offset Virtual Aggregation (NOVA) demonstrated that SELCO is the superior option, yielding RM 7.87 million in annual savings with a 9.5-month payback period. Electricity consumption of 312,417.25 kWh/month contributes to a greenhouse gas emission reduction of approximately 236.81 tons CO2-eq. The sensitivity analysis revealed that as DC voltage drop increased from 2.70 % to 3.30 %, energy output declined, leading to a simultaneous rise in DC losses from 0.78 % to 1.14 %.These findings highlighted large-scale solar PV as a viable decarbonization strategy. Additionally, the design integrates technical performance, financial, and environmental factors into a holistic framework to facilitate solar PV adoption in heavy industries. Elsevier 2025-04 Article PeerReviewed pdf en https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/44543/1/1-s2.0-S2213138825001298-main.pdf Farzana, Dusuki and Roziah, Zailan and Fatin Zafirah, Mansur and Khairulnadzmi, Jamaluddin (2025) Empowering the steel industry with solar: Sustainable energy for a greener future. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 76 (104298). pp. 1-11. ISSN 2213-1388. (Published) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2025.104298 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2025.104298 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2025.104298
spellingShingle T Technology (General)
TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
Farzana, Dusuki
Roziah, Zailan
Fatin Zafirah, Mansur
Khairulnadzmi, Jamaluddin
Empowering the steel industry with solar: Sustainable energy for a greener future
title Empowering the steel industry with solar: Sustainable energy for a greener future
title_full Empowering the steel industry with solar: Sustainable energy for a greener future
title_fullStr Empowering the steel industry with solar: Sustainable energy for a greener future
title_full_unstemmed Empowering the steel industry with solar: Sustainable energy for a greener future
title_short Empowering the steel industry with solar: Sustainable energy for a greener future
title_sort empowering the steel industry with solar: sustainable energy for a greener future
topic T Technology (General)
TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
url https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/44543/
https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/44543/
https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/44543/