CHARTING THE PROGRESS OF PV POWER PLANT ENERGY GENERATING COSTS TO UNSUBSIDIZED LEVELS, INTRODUCING THE PV – LCOE FRAMEWORK

摘要

Fundamental to the widespread global deployment of photovoltaic (PV) power plants is reducing thelevelized cost of electricity (LCOE) to levels that make systems economically attractive without incentives. In recentyears substantial progress has been made to this end with significant reductions seen in all aspects of PV power plantcosts. When speaking of PV power plant economics the industry focuses around three critical metrics: the PV panel andbalance of system (BOS) costs and the cost of energy as measured by LCOE. The PV and BOS costs and LCOE arevaluable tools to track industry progress, but have some limitations that make it desirable to establish a modifiedapproach to track PV power plant energy generation economics. This paper proposes a new framework for categorizingand calculating PV power plant energy generating costs using a system called the PV-LCOE. The PV-LCOE frameworkcombines a cost taxonomy, performance metrics, operating costs, and a simple energy generating cost (LCOE) equationto chart PV power plant cost reduction. The major value of this framework will be to simplify the calculation, identify