Economic and life cycle cost analysis of building-integrated photovoltaic system for composite climatic conditions

An insulated building-integrated photovoltaic (PV) roof prototype is designed, developed, and experimentally monitored for the composite climatic conditions in the current work. The prototype is monitored based on hourly indoor room temperature, relative humidity, discomfort index, decrement factor time lag, and power generation. To validate the results, a heat conduction equation was developed and simulated considering actual lower income group (LIG) building size and materials. Second-order polynomial equations were derived from simulation results to optimize insulation thickness. Additionally, the economic analysis of the insulated building-integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) roof was analyzed and compared to the reinforced concrete cement (RCC) roof. The results reveal that insulated BIPV roofs outperform the RCC roof, reducing indoor temperatures by 3.34 celcius to 1.37 celcius within an optimum thickness range of 0.0838-0.1056 m. A time lag of 1 h and a significant reduction in decrement factor up to 0.29 are achieved. The average discomfort index of the proposed roof during sunshine hours was found to be between 23 and 26.5. The insulated BIPV roofs with levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of the 3.38 Rs/kWh gave a payback period of 6.32 years and a higher internal rate of return of 29.4 compared to RCC roof. The current study increases the feasibility of PV modules to be used as building material.