Techno–economic–environmental comparison of floating photovoltaic plant with conventional solar photovoltaic plant in northern Iran

Abstract

Abstract Photovoltaic (PV) systems can be used to generate electricity due to the potential for solar energy in Iran. Applying floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems is a new approach to utilizing PV systems in water. Most of Iran’s energy consumption is supplied from fossil fuels, especially oil and gas. In recent years, Iran has faced environmental problems and air pollution. Electricity generation using fossil fuels has led to increased environmental pollution. Accordingly, PV systems can be used to generate electricity due to the potential for solar energy in Iran. The interest in predicting the energy production of PV power plants has increased in recent years. In this regard, the techno–economic–environmental study of constructing PV power plants is a basic process to encourage people to use solar energy. A techno–economic–environmental feasibility study has been performed to construct a 5-kW FPV and ground PV (GPV) power plant in a northern city of Iran. Also, the FPV system is compared with the ground PV system using MATLAB® Simulink and RETScreen® software. In this study, the effects of wind and water temperature have been considered. Also, a sensitivity analysis was performed due to the uncertainty in climatic conditions and the amount of PV energy generation. The simulation results show that due to the cooling effect for panels in the FPV system, the production capacity and panels’ efficiency are respectively 19.47% and 27.98% higher than the those of the GPV system. In addition, the FPV system was found to have a 16.96% increase in the annual performance ratio. Overall, using the FPV system reduces the equity payback to 6.3 years (a 22.2% reduction compared to the GPV power plant).