A new approach based on economic profitability to sizing the photovoltaic generator in self-consumption systems without storage

A proper assessment of the cost-competitiveness and profitability of self-consumption systems is crucial to promoting the transition from grid-dependent to energy self-sufficient buildings. Most of the approaches found in the literature may not take into account economic parameters such as taxes, depreciation and the cost of financing, which have a significant effect on the economic profitability of an investment. Moreover, they only focus on discrete array powers and relatively high recording intervals when estimating the self-consumed energy. In order to manage the aforementioned challenges, a new method will be developed to size the PV generator in a PV self-consumption system which provides the NPV curve together with the self-consumption and self-sufficiency indices for a wide range of array powers which suits residential self-consumption systems. Two scenarios will be considered depending on whether the generated surplus electricity is wasted or it is remunerated from the grid operator. Results show that not only the chosen scenario but the electricity tariff may be key parameters when optimizing NPV. Furthermore, the impact of the recording interval may be significant when estimating NPV. Percentage errors of 11.4% and 33.6% may be reached when considering a recording interval of 15 and 60 min, respectively.