Assessing the system and investor value of utility-scale solar PV

Ryan, Lisa; Dillon, Jody; Monaca, Sarah La; Byrne, Julie; O’Malley, Mark

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2016.06.004

Cited by 32 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Ireland has a relatively low solar resource and only a negligible amount of residential PV currently exists; its government is in the process of a multi-stage consultation on prospective renewable energy support schemes (SEAI, 2013;DCENR, 2015). In Ireland, renewable electricity has mainly been generated by on-shore wind, supported by a feed-in tariff since 2006(DCENR, 2013 Ryan et al (2016), this paper updates and extends previous work on Ireland and is likely to be of interest to policy makers, especially in other below-average irradiance locations where similar dynamics are at play.…”

Section: Background -Solar Pv In Irelandsupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of these, this paper focusses on the assessment of consumer economics of residential solar PV using Ireland as a case study, and examines the effect of remuneration schemes, tariff structures, and financing mechanisms on financial performance. It follows a related paper on the system value of utility-sale solar PV (Ryan et al, 2016).Many existing papers offer comparative analysis of financial performance under various support mechanisms between different countries with varying costs, irradiance profiles, and other market conditions (see for example: Couture and Gagnon, 2010;Sarasa Maestro et. al., 2013;Campoccia et al, 2014;Dusonchet and Telaretti, 2015;de Boeck et al, 2016;Lacchini and Ruther, 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Solar PV where the sun doesn’t shine: Estimating the economic impacts of support schemes for residential PV with detailed net demand profiling

Monaca¹,

Ryan

2017

Energy Policy

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Countries with low irradiation and solar PV adoption rates are increasingly considering policy support for solar PV, though consumer electricity demand and solar generation profiles are often mismatched. This paper presents a methodology for policy makers in countries with such conditions to examine more precisely the financial performance of residential solar PV from the consumer perspective as part of an ex-ante policy assessment. We model a range of prospective policy scenarios and compare policy mechanisms that compensate homeowners for generation, those that reduce their upfront costs, and those that assist with financing, using Ireland as a case study. The results confirm the intuitive notion that more generous financial remuneration schemes provide quicker payback, however, we observe that upfront grants do little to accelerate payback timeframes. We also show the importance of retail tariff structure in consumer payback for a solar PV system, with one-part tariffs generating shorter paybacks than two-part tariff structures, although the latter is more likely to secure revenue for electricity infrastructure investment. Drawing from this analysis, the paper proposes some options for the design of policy supports and tariff structures to deliver a sustainable residential renewable electricity system. IntroductionSolar photovoltaic (PV) technology has experienced a dramatic reduction in installed costs in recent years, falling more than 80% since 2008 (IRENA, 2015. As the technology becomes more competitive with conventional generation sources, deployment has increased sharply, reaching 177 MW total installed capacity worldwide in (REN21, 2015. The majority of deployment thus far has naturally been concentrated in locations with some combination of a strong solar resource or sufficiently generous policy supports, which in some cases have created windfall benefits for asset owners at high public cost, ultimately leading to unstable, 2 boom-and-bust market dynamics (De Boeck et al, 2016). As PV costs continue to fall, policymakers in countries with lower solar irradiation are also beginning to consider whether solar PV might be a viable renewable energy resource and worthy of policy support. In the development of such policies, these late-adopters have significant opportunity to avoid the mistakes of others in the design of policy support mechanisms and pricing through learning from other countries' experiences. Careful analysis is thus required to assess whether solar PV is an appropriate technology justifying policy support in such countries.In carrying out ex-ante solar PV policy assessment, policy makers should consider a range of key factors, including the system value of increasing the share of solar PV on the electricity system, the current and future economics of solar PV for different customers-residential, commercial, and utility-scale-and the environmental and other impacts of increased solar PV electricity generation. Of these, this paper focusses on the assessment of consumer economics ...

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Section: Background -Solar Pv In Irelandsupporting

confidence: 52%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Solar PV where the sun doesn’t shine: Estimating the economic impacts of support schemes for residential PV with detailed net demand profiling

Monaca¹,

Ryan

2017

Energy Policy

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“…The Operation and Maintenance (OpEx) costs for photovoltaic and wind plant have been estimated based on existing plants data. While for the PV plant an annual increase of 1.5% in this item of expenditure has been considered (Ryan et al, 2016), for wind plant the historical OpEx costs are inaccurate and not applicable today given the significant improvements of the last decade (IRENA, 2016). The OpEx costs of the wind system has been considered constant for the lifetime of the project.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On-site renewable electricity production and self consumption for manufacturing industry in Ireland: Sensitivity to techno-economic conditions

Sgobba

Meskell

2019

Journal of Cleaner Production

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“…There is a growing number of studies assessing the impacts of regulatory amendments on the costs caused by RES remuneration schemes in Europe (see e.g., [11][12][13][14][15][16]). Specifically, for the case of Greece only a few studies have been carried out discussing the effects of legislation upon the resulting PV and other RES penetration and investments (see e.g., [7,17,18]) nevertheless the impact of the recently imposed FiT retroactive reduction upon the profitability of specific PV system owners has not yet received equivalent attention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A “New-Deal” for the Development of Photovoltaic Investments in Greece? A Parametric Techno-Economic Assessment

2017

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Abstract:The aim of this paper is to identify the financial impact imposed by cost containment measures and especially by the feed in tariff (FiT) reduction upon the profitability of different photovoltaic (PV) investments and the electricity charge faced by consumers. A fully parametric analysis is carried out by varying the following parameters: total installation costs based on their activation date, interest rate for a bank loan, use of a construction subsidy, tax imposition levels, the solidarity surcharge differentiated by the activation and the purchase agreement date and the issuance of credit invoice. During the simulations the simple payback period, the internal rate of return and the profitability index were calculated for the most common investment cases. These were identified through empirical observations on the deployment of PV stations. The profitability of PV stations connected to the medium voltage network were by far affected the most by the cutback while farmers' PV stations and PV rooftop systems were comparatively less affected. Parameters such as the size of the station and the PV activation date were crucial for the assessment of the viability of PV stations. From a social perspective, the FiT cutback prevented an additional 40% increase in the electricity charge paid by electricity consumers.

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Assessing the system and investor value of utility-scale solar PV

Cited by 32 publications

References 23 publications

Solar PV where the sun doesn’t shine: Estimating the economic impacts of support schemes for residential PV with detailed net demand profiling

Solar PV where the sun doesn’t shine: Estimating the economic impacts of support schemes for residential PV with detailed net demand profiling

On-site renewable electricity production and self consumption for manufacturing industry in Ireland: Sensitivity to techno-economic conditions

A “New-Deal” for the Development of Photovoltaic Investments in Greece? A Parametric Techno-Economic Assessment

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