Measurement of Economic Feasibility of Photovoltaic Power Plants - Application to Turkey

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) technology has reached a competitive level owing to high learning rate and technological advance. It is now a feasible technology however its feasibility varies with many parameters such as: location where PV Power Plant (PV PP) is installed, its technology, economic and social state of the country and even the unpredictable future events. In short, it depends on the cost and revenue and so the legislation, incentives, market situation, climate of the location together with solar irradiation exposure. This study questions the differences in the feasibilities of PV PP installments in two Turkish cities by using Economic Feasibility Concept (EFC) a concept developed by the authors of this study. EFC includes the calculations of newly defined parameters: levelized revenue of electricity (LROE), levelized profitability of electricity (LPOE) and net feasibility measure (NFM). They are analyzed together with the well-known parameter levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). A 1 MWs of PV PP is simulated in two cities Antalya and Ordu, and its feasibility dependence on the location is determined. The results of economics feasibility analysis yield NFM result of 2.10 for Antalya while a quite low value of 1.43 has been determined for Ordu. Consequently, it can be inferred that going from North to South NF increases; in any case however, North (Ordu) is also feasible while South (Antalya) is highly feasible.