1. Introduction

1.1. Purpose

Decisions to commit to a PV Solar Plant are largely financially driven. Even if there are ‘green’ and renewable energy motives, I am not aware of any PV Solar Plants built ‘at any cost’.

PV Plant Capacity is a significant consideration in any PV Plant decision. The PV Solar Plant capacity should be comparable in relation to the required Load Demand. There is often little benefit in proposing a too big or too small system, even if the outlay price appears attractive.

Furthermore, there are many technical tradeoffs with short and long term financial impacts that may be considered in deciding on the parameters of a system to build.

Given a PV Plant proposal, this project aims to provide a tool that accurately models the energy output over time. Then with capex and opex costs of the PV Plant, its viability is evaluated. Multiple PV Plant options can be considered and compared to settle on a proposed PV Plant that best meets requirements.

1.2. Scope

This tool only models the performance of proposed PV Plants, and calculates the financial management numbers to determine the plant’s fiscal viability. This tool does not involve itself in the design and selection of components for a PV Plant. However, having selected components and designed a plant, this tool accurately calculates the power production running the numbers against CapEx and OpEx costs, to produce financial management information. Break-Even Dates, Cashflows, ROIs, IRRs and LCOEs are useful in determining the viability of a PV Plant or iterative analysing proposals that have been fine-tuned to settle on a PV plant with optimal returns.

1.3. Intended Audience

1.4. What’s Ahead

1.5. Disclaimer

Please keep in mind that I do not consider myself an expert in this field, nor am I recognised as one. What you see here is a distillation of my learning and experience in my quest to get better at what I do. No information here is guaranteed to be correct. Nor is any information here reliant, it is up to the reader to check the information sources and verify correctness accuracy and completeness.

That said, please, if you wish to comment, correct, or make suggestions, kindly do so here, and I will endeavour to respond promply. It is only through constructive collaboration that we all improve.