ASSESSING THE VIABILITY OF HIGH-CAPACITY PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER PLANTS IN DIVERSE CLIMATIC ZONES: A TECHNICAL, ECONOMIC, AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Even though Turkey has a high potential in terms of solar energy, installed solar energy has a lower capacity than many European countries. With the new initiatives made in recent years, the share of solar energy among energy sources has increased. Turkey has been categorized into four different climate zones by the Turkish Standards Institute (TSE). The cities covered in this study (Antalya, Istanbul, Ankara, and Erzurum) were selected from different climatic regions by the criteria determined by TSE. High-capacity (3 MW) photovoltaic power plants using different system configurations for cities located in different climatic regions of Turkey have been analyzed in terms of technical, economic, and environmental aspects. PVSyst software was used to conduct simulations on fixed tilted (FT), horizontal single axis tracking system (HSAT), and two-axis tracking system (TAT) configurations in the study. It has been concluded that by using HSAT and TAT instead of FT, there will be an increase of 4-6% and 30-37% in annual energy production, respectively. The maximum performance rate for FT, and HSAT systems was calculated at 83.2% in Erzurum (4th region), and the lowest performance rate for TAT systems was determined at 82.3% in Antalya (1st region). The payback periods for the FT, HSAT, and TAT systems were determined to range between 2.9-4.3 years, 4-6 years, and 5.4-8.4 years, respectively. It has been concluded that there will be 41.8-64.7 ktCO₂, 40.8-66.8 ktCO₂, and 50.9-86.4 ktCO₂ fewer emissions for the FT, HSAT, and TAT systems, respectively, in 25 years of operation from an environmental point of view.