Economic analysis of the early market of centralized photovoltaic parks in Sweden

Abstract

Sweden are one of the countries that experience growing installation volumes of Solar photovoltaic. Traditionally, in Sweden, most of the solar photovoltaic investments and policy incentives have focused on distributed photovoltaic systems. Yet, despite limited policy incentives and pessimistic forecasts, an increasing number of centralized photovoltaic parks have been commissioned and plans for substantial new capacities are communicated. Hence, the current paper investigates why. Detailed information about the underlying costs of six PV parks commissioned in2019 and 2020 in Sweden were obtained by in-depth interviews with stakeholders and were analysed through levelized cost of electricity calculations. We conclude that the unsubsidised levelized cost of electricity ranged from 27.37 to 49.39 V/MWh, with an average of 40.79 V/MWh. This is lower than what are assessed for photovoltaic parks in some recent Swedish electricity system scenario studies. The main reason for the discrepancy is identified to be the assumed interest rates in the system scenario studies and the actual cost of capital experienced in the market. Comparing the levelized cost of electricity values with the market value of solar photovoltaic electricity on the spot market show that four of the six studied parks would be profitable under a merchant business model with the last years spot prices. If the downward price trend continues, Sweden may face an unexpected expansion of photovoltaic parks.

Cost efficiency of municipal green bonds’ measures: a marginal abatement cost curves approach

“…For solar, while it seems that Sweden has a low potential for solar energy production, especially in its northern part (Bódis et al , 2019; Prăvălie et al , 2019; Martinopoulos, 2020), we observe that PV adoption in the country is increasing and will likely continue to do so in the coming years. Its adoption might be motivated by access to spot energy markets and a green certificates market in Sweden (Bódis et al , 2019; Prăvălie et al , 2019; Martinopoulos, 2020; Lindahl et al , 2022). Östersunds Solpark, as an example, is registered as an entity entitled to the issue of green certificates (Energimyndigheten, 2021b), and access to such a market may contribute to making the case of investing in this technology more economically attractive.…”

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“…These include adopting a broader perspective considering all relevant costs, including and beyond initial investments and operational expenditures. Salvage costs (SCs) are often overlooked when assessing the financial needs of the measures, and the difficulties around their estimation are known to the previous literature (Beiron et al , 2022; Borén, 2020; Lindahl et al , 2022; Timilsina et al , 2017). Secondly, we expand the research focus to consider all greenhouse gases (GHG) and not only carbon dioxide, contributing to the small number of papers considering non-CO 2 GHG in the scope of MACCs (Harmsen et al , 2019).…”

An Improved Flower Pollination Algorithm based Modelling Method of Photovoltaic Modules

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Weightless Neural Network-Based Detection and Diagnosis of Visual Faults in Photovoltaic Modules

“…To eliminate the PV module power loss, the timely monitoring, classification, localization and diagnosis of faults in PV modules is essential [11][12][13]. For instance, the presence of certain faults like aging [14], cracks [15], delamination [16] and corrosion [17] can degrade the lifespan of PV modules, thereby elevating the energy costs involved [18]. PV module faults can be broadly classified into visual and electrical faults; visual faults pave the way for the occurrence of electrical faults [19].…”