Evaluation of residential stand alone photovoltaic systems in mega cities of the world

ABSTRACT

Growing concerns about the climate change accompanied with energy crisis due to the unrest in the world have pushed the energy market to utilize sustainable and secure alternatives such as solar photovoltaics (PV). However, for residential consumers, the primary concerns are the reliability of the supply and the cost of PV-generated electricity. This study reports on the economic feasibility and technical analysis of PV systems in megacities worldwide. Nine mega cities, Beijing, Berlin, Istanbul, London, New Delhi, New York, Paris, Seoul, and Tokyo, have been selected based on their significant population sizes and the pronounced demand for electricity independence among residents. The annual production, load matching, and PV-electricity and battery dispatch are discussed, with Lazard's levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and net present value (NPV) employed as economic indicators. While calculated LCOEs ranged from $0.084/kWh to $0.27/kWh across different cities, the NPVs were predominantly negative, varying approximately between –$2,000 and –$20,000, with Berlin as an exception. Finally, a sensitivity analysis was conducted, revealing that the LCOE is more sensitive to financial parameters than to module efficiency and irradiation.

KEYWORDS:

• Photovoltaics
• battery systems
• LCOE
• LCOS and NPV
• sensitivity analysis
• off-grid
• SAM

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK) under contract number: 120E474. The authors acknowledge support from the Europe Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (EU PVGIS) and the System Advisor Model (SAM) support team.