Technoeconomic feasibility study of grid-connected building-integrated photovoltaics system for clean electrification: A case study of Doha metro

Abstract

Issues like air pollution and high CO2rates are forcing the government of Qatar to mitigate these pollution rates as Qatar is considered the highest country that has can emissions per capita. As a result, huge efforts are executed to reduce these high rates of pollution so many renewable technologies projects are introduced, and solar PV plant is a major one. In this paper, Doha metro project is taken as a case study to implement a hybrid system within one of the metro stations to assess the economic profitability of it and then it can be a proposal for the country of Qatar to implement such a hybrid system within the governmental projects to mitigate the pollution rate. The methodology adopted in this paper is to evaluate the profitability of the hybrid system proposed by using HOMER software where it can model, simulate and optimize the proposed system with the desired components. Main finding is that due to the low electricity tariffs with and without the governmental subsidies, the implementation of PV system in Qatar is not economically feasible unless the PV system capacity is enlarged into a big scale or the tariff prices being increased with Carbon tax regulations.

Keywords

• BIPV system
• Economic assessment
• Electricity tariffs
• Environmental impact
• HOMER Grid
• Profitability