Techno-economic sustainability analysis of solar energy integration on a commercial building at Kolkata, India: A simulation-based case study

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the optimum energy generation from 125 kWp (kilowatt peak) rooftop solar, along with 758 kWp vertically mounted building applied photovoltaics for a commercial building situated at Newtown, Kolkata, which is currently considered one of the smart cities in India as per Smart City Mission taken up by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. The energy generation profiles from solar for 16 different orientations, including the actual orientation of the building, are observed, and how the change in orientation affects the net energy performance index of the building is included in this study. This work indicates that 51.19% of the annual energy requirement is met through renewable energy generation for optimum orientation with a 0° tilt angle for rooftop solar, which is better than a 15° tilt angle for rooftop solar in the actual orientation, where 51.04% of annual energy demand is met through renewable energy generation. At actual orientation, the specific energy production from vertical façades is 611 kW h/kWp/year (kilowatt hour per kilowatt-peak per year), and 146.28 MW h (megawatt hour) of energy production from rooftop solar annually with a 15° tilt. The economic analysis of the study shows that the expenditure cash flow for the actual orientation of the building is higher than the optimum orientation beyond 10 years of operation, and at the end of 30 years, 35.24% of net savings is achieved through power generation from solar photovoltaics.