Technical, economical and environmental feasibility study of a photovoltaic system under the climatic condition of north Iraq
Omar Mohammed Ali, Omar Rafae Alomar, Shaaban Ibrahim Mohamed
Abstract
The energy, economical and environmental performances of the 1 MWp photovoltaic power plant have been numerically investigated under the climatic condition of Zakho city/Iraq using reality metrological measurements. The results of the PV system have been compared with those of other available power plants that used fossil fuels under identical power values. The findings displayed that the investment in PV technology is very feasible in Zakho city compared to other power plants. The economic results displayed that the payback time is nearly 7 years to recover the primary expense of the plant and the payback energy time is 2 years to recover the embedded energy of PV panels. The cost of a PV plant is nearly 10 times less than that of the other fossil fuel power plants. The employment of the PV plant leads to reduce CO2 emissions between 600 and 2000 tCO2. Finally, the results illustrated that the use of the PV system in Zakho city is feasible technically, economically and environmentally.