Budgeting for Solar PV Plant Operations & Maintenance: Practices and Pricing.

Technical Report · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1237001· OSTI ID:1237001

Enbar, Nadav ^[1]; Weng, Dean ^[1]; Klise, Geoffrey Taylor ^[1]

---

1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

With rising grid interconnections of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, greater attention is being trained on lifecycle performance, reliability, and project economics. Expected to meet production thresholds over a 20-30 year timeframe, PV plants require a steady diet of operations and maintenance (O&M) oversight to meet contractual terms. However, industry best practices are only just beginning to emerge, and O&M budgets—given the arrangement of the solar project value chain—appear to vary widely. Based on insights from in-depth interviews and survey research, this paper presents an overview of the utility-scale PV O&M budgeting process along with guiding rationales, before detailing perspectives on current plant upkeep activities and price points largely in the U.S. It concludes by pondering potential opportunities for improving upon existing O&M budgeting approaches in ways that can benefit the industry at-large.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Program (EE-2A)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1237001
• Report Number(s): SAND--2016-0649R; 618942
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY