Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, Illinois, U.S.) and Gartner Inc. (Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.) have published an article examining the use of levelized cost of energy (LCOE) to calculate the costs of utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, and arguing for the use of the metric.

"Assumptions and the levelized cost of energy for photovoltaics" was first published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science on February 4th, 2011.

Developing a more accurate picture of potential costs

"In typical LCOE projections for solar energy, many assumptions are swept under the rug, and we wanted to make a small step toward lifting up that rug and showing how you can truly get a handle on those assumptions to develop a more accurate picture of the potential costs," said Argonne solar researcher Seth Darling, the lead author of the article. "Specifically, the Argonne approach uses a Monte Carlo simulation that statistically selects from probability distributions to account for the uncertainty associated with various cost and production parameters."

LCOE takes into account lifetime costs, benefits

LCOE is the cost of an energy supply over its lifetime of energy produced, whereas the researchers note that dollars per watt is a measure of initial capital cost and the PV module vendor's performance specification. The researchers note that dollars per watt does not take into account the actual energy that the system will produce or other factors such as maintenance.

The researchers note that the Monte Carlo simulation can produce millions of possible performance outcomes that might occur in the future, weighted to reflect their likelihood.

Joining Seth Darling as co-authors were Argonne Researchers Fengqi You and Thomas Veselka and Gartner Analyst Alfonso Velosa. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science provided funding for this research.

2011-02-10| Courtesy: Argonne National Laboratory; Foto: U.S. Department of Energy | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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