Life cycle cost of building-integrated PV overhangs for the main building in a university campus in Mendoza, Argentina

ARENA, A.P.; FUNES, M.; HENDERSON, G.

Bordeaux

Conferencia; Life Cycle Management - LCM 2015; 2015

U Bordeaux

In this study Life Cycle Costing (LCC) is used to assess the economic profitability of a Building integrated PV system to be installed in the main classrooms building of a university campus in Mendoza (Argentina).Classrooms with northfacing windows receive a large amount of energy from the sun, producing temperatures well over the thermal comfort zone in the warm period of the year. To tackle this problem it was decided to block the solar radiation before entering the classrooms during hot periods of the year, andto transform it into electricity using photovoltaic overhangs. During the cold season the PV overhang doesn ´t block solar radiation directed towards the classrooms due to the lower solar altitude, thus contributing to their heating.The PV panels energy production was calculated considering the daily mean global and diffuse irradiation, sunshine duration and ambient temperature, panels and inverter efficiencies, energy losses, etc.The contribution of the system to the comfort in classrooms have been calculated following the procedures recommended by Auliciems et al (2007) and Mesa et al (2005).The LCC study is performed in constant currency, with a study period of 25 years.The investment costs of the BIPV system includes PV panels, inverter and balance of system components.Future replacement and maintenance costs have also been considered.In order to properly handle sensitive variables such as discount rate, energy costs and projections of future energy costs increase rates different scenarios have been considered.Outcomes and conclusions Positive economic results are only achievable with a Feed In Tariff (FIT) at least double than the current electricity prices, if a null discount rate and 1 % of annual escalation rate for electricity are considered, which are far from the current reality. The market conditions in the country fails to take the advantages of PV distributed generation: reduced environmental pollution, transmission losses and peak demand diminution, employment and industry development etc.Future steps will include thermal simulation and LCA of the system