Energetic, economic and environmental (3E) analyses and LCOE estimation of three technologies of PV grid-connected systems under different climates

Recently, solar energy is considered as the most promising renewable energy source, due to the availability and advancement of the solar technologies. This paper presents an extensive energy, economic and environmental analysis of 2.04 kW(p) of polycrystalline (p-Si), 2.04 kW(p) of monocrystalline (m-Si) and 1.86 kW(p) of amorphous on microcrystalline (a-Si/mu c-Si) identical PV systems installed on the rooftop of 20 different institutional buildings, located in various Moroccan sites. Based on the analysis conducted, annual results are predicted with respect to hourly meteorological data and performance characteristics of each technology are examined using energetic, economic and environmental indexes (3E analysis). Daily simulation results were compared with actual recorded data for one of the geographical site (Meknes city) and good matching between simulated and recorded data has been achieved to prove its validity. The energetic analysis has shown that poly-Si modules surpassed the mono-Si and amorphous-Si modules in terms of performance, capacity factor and conversion efficiency. Besides, economic analysis has been conducted to determine the discounted payback period and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for 20 Moroccan cities and the results have shown that p-Si, m-Si and a-Si/mu c-Si offered the 20-city average of 17.1, 21.6 and 28.6 years payback period, respectively. Moreover, LCOE has been determined for each city and the results reveal that p-Si, m-Si and a-Si/mu c-Si types PV modules presented the average of 9.02, 10.13 and 12.53 cent(sic)/kWh, respectively. Finally, the environmental analysis has revealed that average of 1.316, 1.286 and 1.051 tons of CO2 per kW(p) can be reduced by adopting the p-Si, m-Si and a-Si/mu c-Si PV modules in the studied locations. The findings confirm the potential of the examined technologies and elucidate specific conclusions for the practice of such systems under Morocco's climate.