Techno-economic analysis of stand-alone PV system: A case study of public street lighting for remote area in Indonesia

Abstract

Stand-alone Photovoltaic (PV) system is mostly required for the remote areas where the electricity is limited or not available from the grid. This study presents the simplified method to design system and analyse the economic aspect of the stand-alone PV system. The case study of providing electricity for public street lighting using PV system for remote area in Indonesia was conducted. First, the size of PV system was estimated based on the daily electricity consumption and the peak solar hour (PSH) on the site location of the project, so the requirements of the components were obtained. Second, the components selection was performed by surveying the information from the components manufacturers which met with the requirement of the system. Third, economic analysis was performed by considering the capital cost and the final specific energy electric cost. The public street lighting used 80 W lamp and was operated for 12 hours per day. The result showed that the total capital cost for the system was 8,031,400 IDR (551 USD) and the final specific energy cost at 1,960 IDR/kWh (0.13 USD/kWh). The largest portion of capital cost was for the battery as energy storage which took 38% of the total capital cost.