Economic evaluation of photovoltaic and energy storage technologies for future domestic energy systems – A case study of the UK

Abstract

Developments in photovoltaic (PV) technologies and mass production have resulted in continuous reduction of PV systems cost. However, concerns remain about the financial feasibility for investments in PV systems, which is facing a global shrinking of government support. This work evaluates the investment attractiveness of rooftop PV installations and the impact of energy storage systems (ESS), using the UK as a case study. The evaluation considers the location of installation, the temporal evolution of the supporting policies, local energy consumption, electricity price and cost of investment at different years. Furthermore, the use of electric vehicles (EVs) as an alternative to ESS for complementing PV systems is also investigated. Optimization techniques are employed to schedule ESS and EV energy exchange in order to maximise the investment return. The results show that the net present value of PV systems in the UK has dropped from £28,650 in 2011 to £1,200 in 2017, due to declining government support towards PV technologies. It further shows that by incorporating ESS with PV systems, the benefit in 2017 can be increased by 46%. Conversely, employing the EV as energy storage would not bring additional benefits, considering the associated battery degradation and the current battery manufacturing cost.

A Comprehensive Robust Techno-Economic Analysis and Sizing Tool for the Small-Scale PV and BESS

“…In [13], the generation feed-in-tariff was considered for a household located in the UK. However, the feed-in tariff in the UK was stopped in March 2019, and hence the results might be uncertain.…”

“…However, these deterministic methods are time-exhaustive in addition to other issues concerned with the BESS E-rate. For instance, varying different BESS sizes with a step (e.g., 0 kWh to 6 kWh [13] or 2 kWh to 20 kWh [24]) may not represent the actual BESS in the market as each market BESS has a specific E-rate. A solution to this issue is by simulating all the available BESS in the market.…”

“…This fashion will reduce the optimization complexity in addition to providing near-accurate values to the market BESS. = 1.245 + 0.304 (13) The proposed sizing optimization layer aims to determine the optimal size of PV only, BESS only, and PV+BESS sequentially by maximizing the NPV expressed as:…”

“…Five quotations for five different BESS were obtained from three companies, the cost of the BESS system (battery pack + balance of the system + installation and commissioning) is estimated to be £500/kWh -£790/kWh. According to the literature [5], [13], [26], [37], the cost of the BESS system in the UK is estimated to be £270/kWh -£596/kWh. The BESS system cost is between £402/kWh -£890/kWh according to market prices in the UK [33].…”

Multi-Criteria Storage Selection Model for Grid-Connected Photovoltaics Systems

“…The photovoltaics (PV) systems are gaining a significant importance due to the remarkable solar energy potential and the technological advancements [9]. Besides, the economic viability of PV systems has been appreciated by many countries [10] such as Nigeria [11] and Ethiopia [12]. In contrast to the off-grid PV systems, GCPV systems offer the storage of the extra PV power into the utility grid [13].…”