Techno- Economic Assessment of Photovoltaic Powerhouse Developments (Case Study in Selected Agricultural Research Stations)

Iran has a high potential of solar radiation and lots of sunny days (more than 300 days) in a year.  In this study the feasibility of establishment the photovoltaic powerhouse in several agricultural research stations of Markazi, Esfahan and Kerman Provinces was investigated. In this regard, after determining and analyzing the required meteorological information using Meteonorm software and system simulation by PVsys software, economic analysis of each station were performed by determining the breakeven point and the average cost of energy production for different discount rates. The study also examined the reduction of pollution due to the reduction of Cox, Nox and Sox emissions as a result of employing photovoltaic power plants. According to the results, the most solar electricity generation was occurred in Rudasht station of Esfahan province equaled to 303 kWh/m2 per a year. Photovoltaic powerhouse establishment in the research stations could eliminate pollution production up to 748 tons in a year which exhausted from fuel combustion in the power generation turbines. Results also illustrates considering electricity purchase tariff (6370 IRR/kWh), the construction of photovoltaic power plants with the usual interest rate (more than 8%) is not economically viable for investors. Therefore, the implementation of such projects cusses to produce clean energy and to bring environmental protection, a special banking facilities with interest rates below 8% is recommend to motivate private sector for investment.