Profitability of PV electricity in Sweden

Abstract

The Swedish PV market is still limited compared to many other countries in Europe. However, the growth is strong. 19 MW was installed in 2013 showing that the market more than doubled during 2013 in comparison to 2012. Hence there is of interest to more in detail study the profitability of PV electricity in Sweden for grid connected PV systems, to understand how competitive PV is on the Swedish market. LCOE and payback period are presented for a PV system that is installed to replace retail electricity with PV electricity. Both the cases of private residential systems and of non-private systems are considered.

Residential solar electricity adoption: how households in Sweden search for and use information

“…The goal for households is then often to achieve a result that is satisfactory, rather than calculating the expected results and risks and then making the most rational, optimal choice [32]. Some important issues that households have to consider are energy costs, the PV system's effect on the value of the house, local and global environmental aspects, and the value of a "clean" system or technology, as well as fees and tariffs related to the inspection and maintenance of a system [33,34]. One factor affecting the low level of adoption in contemporary Sweden is the lack of consumer experience with, for example, solar panels and low-energy housing.…”

Organizational Challenges in the Adoption of Building Applied Photovoltaics in the Swedish Tenant-Owner Housing Sector

“…Through substitution of bought electricity with self-production from the installed BAPV system, a tenant-owner cooperative can reduce the variable part of the expenditure on electricity costs. The investment can be analyzed using profitability indicators such as the net present value NPV, payback duration, or leveled cost of electricity (LCOE) [7,[29][30][31].…”

“…However, there are problems in the market due to the lack of buyers of small quantities of certificates [20]. The average value of for a TGC in 2013 was 0.203 SEK/kWh (3.12 US¢/kWh) while certificates of origin had a value of 0.02 SEK/kWh (0.3 US¢/kWh) [7].…”

“…The built environment and in particular the housing sector stands for about 38 percent of Sweden's energy consumption and the housing sector alone accounts for about 25% of all of the electricity consumption every year [6]. While, the price of electricity has continued to rise since 1999, there has been a sharp downward trend in the price of photovoltaic panels and, consequently, the cost of electricity from these units [7].…”

Household installation of solar panels – Motives and barriers in a 10-year perspective

“…The global radiation differ between the seasons, during the winter 2016 it was 33 kwh/m 2 and during the summer 465 kwh/m 2 (SMHI 2017). Stridh et al (2014) calculate that a yield of about 800-1100 kWh/kW per year can be expected during a year with typical solar irradiation for systems with reasonable good azimuth, tilt and without major shading effects. This gives a capacity factor of 9,1-12,6%.…”