Techno-economic study on grid-connected PV system for major cities in Saudi Arabia

¹ Center of Research Excellence in Renewable Energy, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia
³ Department of Electrical and Computer Science Engineering, Technical University Munich, Arcisstraße 21, München, Germany
⁴ Faculty of Automation, Huaiyin Institute of Technology, Huai’an, 223003 Jiangsu, P.R China

Abstract

This paper presents the economic, technical, and environmental performance of a GridConnected PV System (GCPVS) designed for a residential building consisting of 14 families for six major cities of Saudi Arabia. HOMER Pro was used in this study for the evaluation of the techno-economical & environmental performance of the GCPVS. Neom, which a newly developed city on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, which has never been investigated before for such conditions, is also considered among the selected cities in the current study and thus makes the work novel. This analysis demonstrates that CO2 emissions are considerably higher as compared to their counterparts in both; grid alone and grid + PV systems. The studies concluded that the grid + PV system was feasible for all cities. Parameters like Net Present Cost (NPC), Cost of Energy (COE), and excess electricity were proportional to the PV penetration, but with the increase of PV penetration, CO2 emissions decreased. For the grid + PV system, Neom was found to be the most economical as it demonstrated the lowest NPC ($80, 199) and CO2 emissions (63, 664 kg/yr), among others. Neom, as a rapidly developing city in the North-West of Saudi Arabia, possesses great potential for PV. The results of this study can be used to study further PV systems in different climate zones of Saudi Arabia.