Technical and Economic Prefeasibility Analysis of Residential Solar PV System in South Kazakhstan

Anuar Assamidanov, Nurbol Nogerbek, Luis Rojas Solorzano

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

Abstract

In the family of renewable technologies, photovoltaic (PV) systems today attract considerable attention (Dornfeldt, M.: The future of the Kazakh energy sector and the Kazakhstan 2050 strategy. Retrieved November 2, 2014, from 18th REFORM Group Meeting http://www.polsoz.fu-berlin.de/polwiss/forschung/systeme/ffu/veranstaltungen/termine/downloads/13_salzburg/Dornfeldt-Salzburg-2013.pdf (2014)). However, on-grid, PV market is not a profitable sector by itself. It is dependent on the governmental support, which still must stimulate investment with subsidies. Thus, this paper presents the technical and economic prefeasibility analysis of implementing a residential photovoltaic system in South Kazakhstan, using the clean energy project analysis tool RETScreen® V.4. The different systems available for PV cells are considered; however, with the climatic conditions in South Kazakhstan, the study focuses on polycrystalline solar cells (Poly-Si) due to its optimal specifications for the region. Furthermore, local company Astana Solar has implemented a production line of Poly-Si photovoltaic modules using Kazakhstani silicon (Astana Solar: About company. Retrieved November 2, 2014, from: http://www.astanasolar.kz/en/about-us (2012)), which could make the project even more attractive to the country.

In the analysis presented, solar resource in South Kazakhstan was estimated using solar radiation data from NASA Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy. For a 6.6 kWp system, installed in the roof of a home, it is found that 8834 MWh of electric energy is exported to the grid on an average per year. The suitability of city-level feed-in tariffs (FITs) to promote solar photovoltaic panels in Kazakhstan is included in the analysis, despite that it is very recent and had not been thoroughly examined yet (Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan 2014). Several different economic and financial indicators were calculated, such as the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Net Present Value (NPV), Benefit-Cost (B-C) ratio, Cost of Energy Production (CEP) and Simple Payback (SP). All indicators for all sites explored in South Kazakhstan showed favorable conditions for deployment of the proposed residential solar PV system. The highest IRR of 17.9%, NPV of $14,523 and B-C ratio of 9.65 was observed in Shymkent and the lowest IRR of 16%, NPV of $11,366 and B-C ratio of 7.84 was observed in Taraz. Meanwhile, it can be observed that Shymkent got the shortest SP period of 9.9 years while Taraz got the longest payback period of 10.8 years.

The technical and economic analysis shows also that the implementation of an additional 50% subsidy on total initial cost recently approved affected very positively the PV-based generation system in southern regions. Therefore, it is found that all southern Kazakhstan is a fertile territory to implement on-grid residential projects.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationExergy for A Better Environment and Improved Sustainability, Volume 2
Subtitle of host publicationApplications
EditorsFethi Aloui, Ibrahim Dincer
PublisherSpringer International Publishing
Pages783-792
Number of pages10
Volume2
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-319-62575-1
ISBN (Print)978-3-319-62574-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 23 2018

Publication series

NameGreen Energy and Technology

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