Solar power has come of age. Not only has it become one of the key alternatives to fossil fuels, it can now be deployed in a way that makes a viable business with a financial profit. This book shows industry professionals and students how to do just that. Solarnomics describes the economics of building and operating a solar power plant today and provides a window into a future in which several technologies collaborate, and in which all participants in the electricity grid become smarter at scheduling both the supply and demand for electric power to give humanity a future that is sustainable, both environmentally and economically. The book shows how to estimate costs and revenues, how to tweak the design of a project to improve profitability, how to calculate return on investment, how to assess and deal with risk, how to raise capital, how to combine solar with batteries to make a hybrid microgrid, and how to be prepared for future developments in the evolving smart electricity grid. Solarnomics will enable professionals in the solar industry to assess the potential profitability of a proposed solar project, and it will enable students to add an extra dimension to their understanding of sustainability.
Author(s): David Wright
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge | Taylor & Francis Group
Year: 2022
Language: English
Commentary: TruePDF
Pages: 281
Tags: Solar Energy Industries: Finance; Solar Power Plants: Management
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Meet the Author
Preface
Glossary and Acronyms
Part 1 Deploying Solar: Costs and Revenues
1 Utility-Scale: Large Solar
• Introduction
• Costs
❍ Tracking Systems
❍ Capital Costs
❍ Operations and Maintenance Costs
❍ Summary
• Revenues
❍ Capacity Factor
❍ Wholesale Electricity Market
❍ Selling to the Electricity Grid Using Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs)
❍ Corporate PPAs
❍ Feed-in Tariffs (FITs)
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
2 Behind-the-Meter, Commercial and Industrial: Medium-Sized Solar
• Introduction
• Costs
❍ Capital Costs
❍ Operations and Maintenance Costs
❍ Summary
• Savings
❍ Net-Metering
❍ Demand Charges
❍ System Peak Charges
❍ Maximizing Savings
❍ Carbon Reductions
❍ Intangible Benefits
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
3 Behind-the-Meter, Small Business and Residential: Small Solar
• Introduction
• Costs
❍ Capital Costs
❍ Operations and Maintenance Costs
• Savings
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
4 Off-grid: Small to Large Solar
• Introduction
• Remote Industrial Operations
❍ Mining
❍ Mobile Network Base Stations
• Remote Communities and Small Islands
❍ Northern Canada
❍ Saudi Arabia
❍ Small Islands
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Processes
Part 2 Solar Profitability
5 Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return
• Introduction
• Net Present Value (NPV)
• Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
❍ Examples of Internal Rate of Return
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
6 Levelized Cost of Electricity
• Introduction
• What LCOE is for
• How to Calculate LCOE
❍ Relationship between LCOE and IRR
• Examples of LCOE
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
7 Solar Finance
• Introduction
• Securitization
• Developers
❍ Bundling Power Purchase Agreements into a Tradable Security
❍ Bundling Loan Agreements into a Tradable Security
• YieldCos
• Developer – YieldCo Interaction
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
8 Managing Risk
• Introduction
• International Standards
• Planning
• Development
• Operations and Maintenance
❍ Risk of Increased Costs
❍ Risk of Reduced Revenues
❍ Counterparty Risk
• Impact on Internal Rate of Return and Levelized Cost of Electricity
• Summary
• Takeaways
❍ Planning
❍ Development
❍ Operations and Maintenance
❍ Quantifiable Risk
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
Part 3 Getting the Biggest Bang for Your Solar Buck
9 Storage: Improving Solar Profitability
• Introduction
• Storage Options
❍ Pumped Hydro
❍ Batteries
❍ Supercapacitors
❍ Flywheels
❍ Compressed Air
❍ Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) also known as Solar Thermal Power
❍ Hydrogen
• Benefits of Storage
❍ Behind-the-Meter Applications
❍ Front-of-the-Meter Applications
• Summary
• Takeaways
❍ Storage Options and Their Characteristics
❍ Applications of Storage That Improve the Profitability of a Solar Project
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
10 Profitability of Solar Microgrids and Hybrids
• Introduction
• Reliability
• Intermittency
❍ Short Term
❍ Medium Term
❍ Long Term
• Optimizing Internal Rate of Return for Utility-Scale Microgrids
❍ Wholesale Market
❍ Power Purchase Agreement
• Optimizing Internal Rate of Return for Behind-the-Meter Microgrids
❍ ToU and Demand Charges
❍ System Peak Charges
• Minimizing Levelized Cost of Electricity for Off-Grid Microgrids
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
11 Extra Revenue from Grid-Balancing Services
• Introduction
• Electricity Market (also known as Wholesale Electricity Market)
• Grid-Services Market (also known as Ancillary Services Market, Balancing Services Market and Operating Reserve Market)
• Capacity Market
• Trends in Markets
• Frequency Sensing and Regulation
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
❍ Grid-Services Market
❍ Frequency Sensing and Regulation
Part 4 Preparing for Future Solar Opportunities
12 Participative/Transactive Electricity Markets
• Introduction
• ReFLEX (Renewable Energy Flexibility), in the Orkney Islands
• Trading Flexibility in Cornwall
• The Port of Amsterdam, Shared Energy Platform
• Trends in Participative Markets
❍ Generic Software
❍ Solar Industry Involvement
❍ Grid Management
• Summary
• Takeaways
❍ Overall
❍ Market Participants
❍ Market Organization
❍ Benefits to Solar Industry
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
13 Emerging Solar Technologies
• Introduction
• Bifacial Solar
• Floating Solar (Float-o-Voltaics)
• Concentrating Photovoltaics
• Thin-Film Photovoltaics
❍ Cadmium Telluride
❍ Perovskites
❍ Organics
❍ Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
14 Emerging Solar Applications
• Introduction
• Hydrogen
❍ Making Hydrogen
❍ Transporting Hydrogen
❍ Using Hydrogen in Industry
❍ Using Hydrogen for Transport and Space Heating
❍ Using Hydrogen as a Buffer
❍ Trends in Green Hydrogen
❍ Impact of Hydrogen on Solar Economics
• Building Integrated Photovoltaics
• Agriculture Integrated Photovoltaics – Agrivoltaics
❍ Field Agriculture
❍ Greenhouses
• Avoiding the Electric Utility Death Spiral
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
❍ Hydrogen
❍ BIPV
❍ Agrivoltaics
15 Profitability Analysis for Emerging Solar Technologies
• Introduction
❍ Perovskite/Silicon Tandems
• Microtracked Concentrating Photovoltaics
• Summary
• Takeaways
• Probe Deeper: The Why?
• Process
❍ Perovskite/Silicon Tandem
❍ mCPV
Epilogue
Geographical Index
Comprehensive Index
