Abstract:
Several countries have a critical need to enhance their electricity production to satisfy the tremendously
increasing energy demand and to minimize the black outs. Due to scarcity of fossil fuels
and degrading environment, rooftop Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) can be a suitable renewable alternative
of green and clean energy. In this paper, due to the techno-economic, environmental and social
benefits of Solar PV, the modelling and planning of a solar PV plant to fulfil the energy demand of an
academic building is carried out. The analysis is done including all the financial and environmental
aspects considering recent market prices and future price escalation. A Modified Greedy Search based
optimal planning of the SPV to minimize grid dependence considering load variation pattern with its
assessment analysis for an academic building is proposed in this research work. The various financial
parameters that affect the feasibility of Solar PV plant i.e., energy payback period, grid dependency, rate
of investment return, economic payback period, rate of escalation with actual cost of electricity, annual
maintenance cost, depreciation and taxation are considered and evaluated. The environmental factors
related to the generation from Solar PV i.e., CO2 emission reduction and carbon credit are also included
in analysis. The results obtained for the proposed Solar PV plant shows that the energy payback period
is 8 years and IRR with depreciation and taxation is 21% (approx.) with net CO2 mitigation of 1199
tCO2 during the useful life span (25 years) of the plant.
