Techno-Economic Analysis and Performance Evaluation of Rooftop Solar PV Systems Using Actual Data in Australian Context

Rooftop PV solar systems are integrated with grid in numerous ways such as Off-Grid, On-Grid and Hybrid Rooftop PV systems. The PV power generation is intermittent in nature and involves uncertainties. Battery storage systems are installed with rooftop PV systems to regulate and supply power during off-peak solar hours. Battery systems degrade their capacity with its usage over time. Therefore, It is imperative to study economic perspectives of rooftop PV systems considering the intermittency of PV power generation and household electricity consumption patterns with the performance evaluation of rooftop PV-battery system while considering its aging mechanism of capacity degradation. This paper presents a generic methodology using Monte-Carlo simulation approach to understand the intermittent nature of PV generation and household load consumption and evaluates the battery performance in the rooftop PV systems by using the actual rooftop PV power generation and residential electricity consumption data collected from Sydney CBD Region, Australia. Battery aging, along with intermittent PV power and Household power consumption is used to give the economic perspectives of all PV-Grid integrations of rooftop PV-Battery systems. The results show a clear insight to the performance, economic and financial perspectives of rooftop residential solar PV systems over the time spam of thousand days that will help PV users to understand financial benefits involved specific to the solar PV-Grid integration schemes.