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Techno-Economic Evaluation of a Residential Roof-Mounted Solar System

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Book cover Environmentally-Benign Energy Solutions

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

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Abstract

In this chapter, a case study is presented where a residential solar system in Kitchener, Ontario, is analyzed economically as its annual performance is also assessed. The recorded data for this system are investigated further to better assess its technical performance. This system is part of a government-incentive program called microFIT, which allows for generated electricity from renewable sources to feed to the local grid for generous rates ranging between $0.29 and $0.97 per kWh. The system is further examined to show the correlation between climatic parameters such as wind speed and temperature on the overall system performance. Wind speed shows an inverse relationship to the energy output, while the temperature shows a linear relationship. Optimal annual performance is observed when the temperature is at 18 °C and when the wind speed is at 3.8 m/s. Furthermore, using the System Advisor Model (SAM) developed by NERL, a residential solar system has been simulated with the addition of a battery storage in order to understand its impact on the performance and economic aspect of the system. The modeled system without the battery correlates closely with the actual installed system. In fact, the actual ROI for the system is 19.75% while the modeled ROI is 23.5%. The payback time of 5 years is another major highlight of this system. In addition, the actual cost of the system is $18,844 while the projected cost modeled is $15,425. An addition of the battery resulted in insignificant improvements in power generation, higher projected cost of $20,466, lower ROI of 17.21% and a longer payback period of 5.8 years. The major losses in the system’s production are due to shading and soiling, which add up to 64,899 kWh in the lifetime of the system. Finally, GHG emissions of the current system total up to 38,000 kgCO2e/kWh.

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Abbreviations

Ac :

Area of collector, m2

Cp :

Power coefficient

\( {\text{Cost}}_{0} \) :

Project initial cost, $

\( E_{S,Y}^{\text{SW}} \) :

Incident radiation flux, kW/m2

h :

Heat transfer coefficient, W/m2K

\( I_{b} \) :

Beam solar radiation on a horizontal surface, W/m2

\( I_{d} \) :

Diffuse solar radiation on a horizontal surface, W/m2

Impp:

MPP current

Isc:

Short-circuit current, A

I T :

Hourly total solar radiation on a horizontal surface, W/m2

\( \dot{N} \) :

Net negative cash flow, $

Pmax:

Maximum power, W

\( \dot{P} \) :

Maximum operational hours in a year, hours/year

\( \ddot{P} \) :

Net positive cash flow, $

\( \dddot P \) :

Total project investment, $

\( {\text{PI}}_{i} \) :

Project’s net income in a given year, $

\( {\text{PCF}} \) :

Periodic cash flow, $/year

Powermax:

Maximum power output, MW

\( T_{\text{ref}} \) :

Reference temperature, °C or K

Vmpp:

MPP voltage, V

Voc:

Open-circuit voltage, V

YP:

Yield production, kWh/kWp

\( \beta_{\rho } \) :

Temperature coefficient for module efficiency

\( \eta_{\text{PV}} \) :

PV module efficiency

\( \eta_{\text{ref}} \) :

PV module efficiency at reference temperature

GHG:

Greenhouse Gas

\( {\text{IESO}} \) :

Independent Electricity Service Operator

LCA:

Lifecycle assessment

microFIT:

Micro-feed-in-tariff

\( {\text{NERL}} \) :

National Exposure Research Laboratory

NPV:

Net present value

PV:

Photovoltaics

PBT:

Payback time

\( {\text{ROI}} \) :

Return on investment

\( {\text{SAM}} \) :

System Advisor Model

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON, L1H 7K4, Canada

    Azzam Abu-Rayash & Ibrahim Dincer

Authors
  1. Azzam Abu-Rayash
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  2. Ibrahim Dincer
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Correspondence to Ibrahim Dincer .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, ON, Canada

    Ibrahim Dincer

  2. Dokuz Eylul University, Buca, Izmir, Turkey

    Can Ozgur Colpan

  3. Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dokuz Eylul University, Buca, Izmir, Turkey

    Mehmet Akif Ezan

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Abu-Rayash, A., Dincer, I. (2020). Techno-Economic Evaluation of a Residential Roof-Mounted Solar System. In: Dincer, I., Colpan, C., Ezan, M. (eds) Environmentally-Benign Energy Solutions. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20637-6_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-20637-6_30

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-20637-6

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