Techno-economic Analysis of Novel PV Plant Designs for Extreme Cost Reductions

Conference · Sun Jun 20 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · 2021 IEEE 48th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/pvsc43889.2021.9518687· OSTI ID:1821822

Pilot, Nicholas ^[1]; Bedilion, Robin; Fregosi, Daniel; Hackett, Sean; Bolen, Michael; Stekli, Joseph

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1. Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI)

A techno-economic analysis is underway examining the cost and performance of future large-scale photovoltaic (PV) plant components, including bifacial modules, tandem modules, increased plant voltage architectures, and module-level power electronics. Integration of these components into PV plant designs is compared with current PV technologies based on levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). Baseline models are developed and validated against recorded PV plant performance data. Expected cost and performance data of future PV technologies are incorporated into the baseline models. An evolutionary algorithm is utilized to optimize PV plant configuration, technology combination, and LCOE. This paper focuses on the bifacial module analysis.

• Research Organization: Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: EE0008981
• OSTI ID: 1821822
• Report Number(s): DOE-EPRI-8981-1
• Journal Information: 2021 IEEE 48th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), Journal Name: 2021 IEEE 48th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
System Advisor Model
bifacial modules
evolutionary algorithm
levelized cost of electricity
optimization
photovoltaic
technoeconomic analysis
utility-scale