access icon free Cost–benefit analysis of rooftop photovoltaic systems based on climate conditions of Gulf Cooperation Council countries

The objective of this study is to present an economic analysis (EA) of actual installed photovoltaic (PV) projects considering Gulf Cooperation Council countries climate conditions. The two analysed PV systems are commissioned in Kuwait and they were chosen to be the scope of this study since the availability of their characteristics. The first system is installed on a school and equipped with thin film (copper indium gallium selenide) solar modules of efficiency equal to 14% and the other system is installed on a commercial building and equipped with monocrystalline solar modules of efficiency equal to 17%. The EA consists of studying the financial parameters related to the two previous projects using two different calculation tools. One tool is developed and presented in this study that is the EA calculator and the other tool is the existing solar advisory model software. The two calculation tools’ results almost match with slight differences considered negligible, so the developed EA calculator is considered validated. As a conclusion, the impact of renewable energy (RE) costs on future investments in RE technologies and especially on PV projects is being evaluated.

Inspec keywords: thin film devices; building integrated photovoltaics; power generation economics; cost-benefit analysis; semiconductor thin films; solar cell arrays; ternary semiconductors

Other keywords: economic analysis; Kuwait; solar advisory model software; monocrystalline solar modules; financial parameters; calculation tools; PV systems; photovoltaic projects; RE technologies; PV projects; climate conditions; rooftop photovoltaic systems; cost-benefit analysis; Gulf Cooperation Council countries; copper indium gallium selenide; thin film solar modules; EA calculator; renewable energy costs

Subjects: Solar power stations and photovoltaic power systems; Other semiconductor materials; Thin film circuits; Photoelectric conversion; solar cells and arrays; Power system management, operation and economics; Solar cells and arrays; Buildings (energy utilisation)

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