Following the completion of both the technical and financial analysis for the project, the optimum capacity to be implemented in 2030 and the capacities to be further added on in 2040, and subsequently in 2050, can be selected.
The main criteria for the selection of the optimum generation capacities are firstly that the PV farm should be able to cover as much as possible of the city’s energy demand, whilst keeping the wasted energy at as low a level as possible; and secondly for the PV farm project to be as attractive and as profitable an investment as possible.
The main elements to be studied that will indicate the profitability of the project are the payback period and the internal rate of return which is an essential quantity for investors when comparing projects as it indicates the profitability of a project compared to others.
An example of the main elements for selection of the optimum capacity of PV farm for 2030 from both the technical and financial analysis are presented in Table 1 below.
Taking into consideration the main criteria for selection described in the first paragraph of this section, the 25 MW PV capacity, highlighted in orange in Table 1 above, is considered as the optimum capacity for 2030.
Using the same criteria for selection, the optimum capacity selected to be added on to the PV farm in 2040 was an additional 25 MW, increasing the total capacity of the PV farm to 50 MW, and for 2050 was an additional 50 MW, increasing the total capacity of the PV farm to 100 MW. The total capacities for each of the periods 2030, 2040 and 2050 with their matching city demand coverage are presented in Table 2 below.
One other consideration that should be stated is that a PV farm of 100 MW capacity which will be implemented by 2050 will need an area of approximately 0.6km2. To put this into context, Figure 1 below indicates the projected area of the city by 2050 and compares it to scale with the area needed for the 100 MW PV farm.
• = area needed for 100 MW PV farm in 2050
Figure 1: Area needed for 100 MW PV farm in 2050 in scale with predicted Mian Channu area for 2050
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
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University of Strathclyde
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Glasgow
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Scotland, UK
+44 (0) 141 548 4851
mae@strath.ac.uk