Techno-economic and Environmental Analysis of Floating Photovoltaic Power Plants: A case Study of Iran

Solar energy, as a renewable and clean energy, has a remarkable share in improving the water-energy-food nexus. However, due to occupying a vast area of land, the development of large-scale photovoltaic systems is a serious challenge, particularly in regions with land restrictions. As a solution, it has been argued that the installation of the floating photovoltaic systems on the water reservoirs can save land as well as reduce the evaporation rate. The aim of this work is to economically and environmentally evaluate the feasibility of the installation of a 10-megawatt floating photovoltaic power plant on a water reservoir. The results obtained show that the payback period of investment and internal rate of return are achieved at 5.2 years and 20.4%, respectively. It is also found that if only 0.3% of the water reservoir surface is covered, the evaporation volume will be decreased from 441.2 up to 515.2 thousand cubic meters. Moreover, the environmental assessment demonstrates that 8470 to 15311 tons of CO2 and 27 to 52.3 tons of NOx are not released into the atmosphere. Ultimately, the sensitivity analysis proves that if the capital cost is reduced by 30%, the payback period will be shortened to 3.6 years. Furthermore, such a project in Chah-nimeh will be profitable as long as the electricity purchasing tariffs are more than US$ 0.096/kWh.