Techno-economic assessment of grid-connected

residential rooftop photovoltaic systems using various

photovoltaic technologies: a case study in the
2021 International Conference on Electromechanical and Energy Systems (SIELMEN) | 978-1-6654-0078-7/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/SIELMEN53755.2021.9600429

Northwestern Romania

Ciprian Cristea, Maria Cristea, Radu-Adrian Tîrnovan

Faculty of Electrical Engineering
Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca, Romania
ciprian.cristea@emd.utcluj.ro

Abstract— Solar energy represents one of the most
encouraging renewable energy sources that is expected to
gradually replace most fossil energy sources in the electricity
production, contributing to climate protection throughout the
world, especially by diminishing greenhouse gas emissions. The
photovoltaic technologies’ energy performance has been
significantly enhanced during the last decade. The deployment of
grid-connected rooftop photovoltaic systems for residences in
Romania is nowadays undergoing remarkable expansion. This
paper analyses the techno-economic feasibility of deploying 6 kW
grid-connected rooftop photovoltaic installations based on
monocrystalline silicon, polycrystalline silicon, heterojunction
with intrinsic thin layer, thin film copper indium gallium selenide,
cadmium telluride and amorphous silicon photovoltaic
technologies for a dwelling located in the Northwestern Romania.
The results revealed that polycrystalline silicon photovoltaic
system proved to be the most economically feasible option. This
techno-economic assessment provides valuable information for
different stakeholders regarding the opportunity of deploying
photovoltaic installations in the examined location or for regions
with comparable climate features.
Keywords— Grid-connected photovoltaic system, Solar energy,
Techno-economics, Feasibility analysis, Romania, Photovoltaic
technologies
I. INTRODUCTION
Electric energy consumption represents a vital aspect of
modern life and, at the same time, has a major contribution to
the development of economies around the world. The residential
sector plays an important role in the European Union energy
market, accounting for almost thirty percent of the total power
consumption [1] and is responsible for about one-fifth of carbon
dioxide emissions [2].
The adverse effects of climate change are mainly due to the
fact that there is an increasingly energy demand and fossil fuels
represent the main energy sources used in economies around the
world. Unlike fossil fuels, the solar energy is a virtually
inexhaustible source of green energy [3-5]. Although the
potential of solar energy is greater than the contemporary
worldwide energy consumption [6], the energy production from
this renewable energy source is not significant.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) represents one of the most
promising renewable technologies that is used for electricity
generation by converting solar energy using PV cells made of
semiconductor materials [7-10].
Nowadays, the commercially PV technologies fall into two
broad categories: crystalline and thin film technologies [11-12].
The first category contains the technologies with the highest
market share, of over ninety percent, mainly because of the
competitive cost, efficiency and service time [13]. The major
commercial crystalline technologies comprise monocrystalline
silicon (m-Si), polycrystalline silicon (p-Si) and heterojunction
with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) [14]. Even though thin film
technologies are not predominant on the global market, it is
expected that these technologies are going to play a significant
role in the global PV market [15]. The most common
commercial thin film technologies include cadmium telluride
(CdTe), amorphous silicon (a-Si) and copper indium gallium
selenide (CIGS) [16].
It has been noticed a growing interest in the literature for
evaluating the feasibility of grid-connected rooftop photovoltaic
systems. Reference [17] evaluated the feasibility of a 5 kW grid-
connected residential rooftop PV system, based on p-Si PV
modules, in Turkey and found that the viability decreases from
Southern to Northern provinces. Reference [18] investigated the
techno-economic feasibility of 4 kW grid-connected PV
installations, based on a-Si and cooper indium disulfite PV
modules, in the Kumasi, Ghana, and revealed that thin film a-Si
PV system was more competitive than PV installation based on
cooper indium disulfite PV modules. Reference [19] conducted a
techno-economic evaluation of a 10 kW grid-connected PV
installation, based on m-Si PV modules, deployed in Wellington,
New Zeeland, and pointed out the viability of the PV system.
Reference [20] evaluated the techno-economic feasibility of grid-
connected residential rooftop PV systems, based on m-Si and p-
Si PV modules in Hong Kong, and found out that p-Si PV
installation was the most suitable option.

978-1-6654-0078-7/21/$31.00 ©2021 European Union 408

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 In the literature, the feasibility of grid-connected residential
rooftop PV systems has been investigated for PV installations Load
based on only one or two types of solar PV module technology.
This paper assesses the techno-economic feasibility of 6 kW grid-
connected rooftop photovoltaic systems based on six PV modules
technologies for a dwelling located in the Northwestern Romania.
To the best of our knowledge, there are no papers in the literature
that assessed techno-economic feasibility of PV installations based PV Arrays Inverter (s) Switchboard
on six distinct solar PV technologies.
This paper is structured in the following way: the
methodology is explained in the second section; the results are
presented in the third section and, this study ends with the fourth
section, which summarizes the conclusions. Energy
meter
II. METHODOLOGY
Grid-connected PV systems represent one of the promising
alternatives to generate green energy. The installed capacity of
grid-connected PV installations is roughly ninety-nine times
greater than that of stand-alone installations, which are using National
batteries energy storage systems [21]. grid

A simplified diagram of the grid-connected PV system is
described in Fig. 1. The power produced by the distributed
generation unit may be used to meet the dwelling’s electricity
needs or to feed the surplus into the utility grid.
In this paper, a techno-economic analysis of m-Si, p-Si, HIT,
CIGS, CdTe and a-Si PV installations, for a residence located in
Cluj-Napoca, is carried out. Cluj-Napoca is situated in the
Northwestern part of Romania, at 46.7712o N and 23.6236o E,
being one of the largest and populous cities in the country.
Table 1 presents the most important technical data of the PV
panels that are part of the PV installations.
Fig. 1. Simplified diagram of grid-connected PV system
The net present value (NPV) method has been used to
analyze the profitability of the grid-connected rooftop PV
systems based on different PV modules technologies due to the
fact that is regularly employed in investment appraisal. This
method is used for determining present value of the proposed
investment project’s cash inflows and outflows. NPV can be
determined as follows [22]:
=∑ − (1)
( )

The PVSOL premium 2021 software has been used to design
the PV systems and to simulate the power generated by them. A
real load profile, where measurements were carried out at 60
minutes intervals, has been imported in the software simulation
tool. The annual electricity consumption totals 5301 kWh. The
PV systems have been installed on a household building with
gabled roof.
where: CFi is the cash flow encountered in the year i; r is the
discount rate; CAPEX is the capital expenditures; n represents
the lifetime of the proposed investment project.
If NPV is greater than zero, than the proposed investment
project is viable, otherwise it should not be implemented. The
cash inflows include the value of excess power sent into the
utility grid by the PV installation and the power consumption
cost reduction. The cash outflows include the operation and
maintenance costs.

TABLE I. THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PV MODULES

Specifications Type of panels
m-Si p-Si HIT CIGS CdTe a-Si
Nominal power [W] 425 425 330 150 125 150
Number of PV 14 14 18 40 48 40
panels
Efficiency [%] 19.84 19.24 19.7 14.2 17.4 9.7
Open circuit voltage 49.09 48.2 69.7 80.7 99.4 85.5
[V]
Short circuit current 10.78 11.29 6.07 2.59 1.66 2.54
[A]
Module length [m] 2.08 2.108 1.59 1.587 1.2 1.4
Module width [m] 1.03 1.048 1.053 0.664 0.6 1.1
Module height [m] 0.035 0.04 0.035 0.038 0.0069 0.0068

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 The price of the distributed energy systems that use the solar
energy diminished appreciably over the last years. The installation
costs for the investigated PV systems have been obtained from the
solar PV installers. The considered installation costs were 7150.41
USD for the m-Si PV system, 6774.08 USD for the PV p-Si
installation, 7889.81 USD for the HIT PV system, 8725.5 USD for
the CIGS PV installation, 8349 USD for the CdTe PV system and
6717.15 USD for the a-Si PV installation. A lifespan of 25 years
has been taken into account for photovoltaic systems [23]. An
annual derating factor of 0.7 percent has been considered for the
crystalline technologies and 0.9 percent for thin film technologies,
accordingly to manufacturers specifications. A discount rate of 5
percent and operation and maintenance costs of one percent of the
installation cost [24] containing the replacements cost as well [25]
were considered. In 2021, the owner of the residence located in
Cluj-Napoca paid about 0.19188 USD for each kWh of electricity
consumed from the network. In the same year, the prosumers
received approximately 0.04714 USD for each kWh of green
electricity sent to the grid.
III. RESULTS
This section presents the finding regarding the feasibility of
PV systems based on PV modules technologies exposed in the
previous section. Fig. 2 describes electricity consumption of the
studied dwelling and the largest, respectively the lowest amount
of energy generated by photovoltaic systems in the first year of
operation, on an hourly base.

5 6 6
Consumption m-Si CIGS Consumption m-Si a-Si Consumption CdTe a-Si
4 5 5
Energy [kWh]

Energy [kWh]
Energy [kWh]

4 4
3
3 3
2
2 2
1 1 1

0 0 0

January February March

6 6 6
Consumption CdTe a-Si Consumption CdTe a-Si Consumption CdTe a-Si
5 5 5
Energy [kWh]

Energy [kWh]
Energy [kWh]

4 4 4

3 3 3

2 2 2

1 1 1

0 0 0

April May June

6 6 6
Consumption CdTe CIGS Consumption CdTe CIGS Consumption CdTe CIGS
5 5 5
Energy [kWh]

Energy [kWh]

Energy [kWh]

4 4 4

3 3 3

2 2 2
1 1 1

0 0 0

July August September

6 5 5
Consumption CdTe CIGS Consumption m-Si CIGS Consumption m-Si CIGS
5 4 4
Energy [kWh]
Energy [kWh]
Energy [kWh]

4
3 3
3
2 2
2

1 1 1

0 0 0

October November December

Fig. 2. The load profile in comparison with the largest, respectivelly the lowest amount of electricity generated by the PV systems, on an hourly base

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 As can be noticed from Fig. 2, the distributed generation unit
based on CdTe PV modules generated the largest amount of m-Si p-Si HIT CIGS CdTe a-Si
electric energy in the autumn, summer, and spring months, 2500 1,999.47 2,053.29 2,028.02
except for February, while PV installation based on m-Si PV
modules produced the largest amount of clean electricity during 2000
the winter months and during the first month of spring. On the

NPV [USD]
1500
other hand, the CIGS PV installations generated the lowest
amount of electric energy during the first and last six months of 1000 688.14 594.58
the year. Fig. 3 illustrates the monthly electric energy produced
by the PV installations based on crystalline technologies. 500

1000 m-Si p-Si HIT 0

900
-500
800 -529.16
Energy [kWh]

700 -1000
600
500 Fig. 5. NPV of PV installations
400
Fig. 5 illustrates that, among the investigated PV
300
installations based on crystalline silicon technologies, the p-Si
200 PV system is the most viable, followed closely by the m-Si PV
100 installation.
0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
As regards the distributed generation units based on thin film
Month technologies, the a-Si PV installation proved to be the most
profitable.
Fig. 3. PV monthly electric energy output for crystalline technologies
The only grid-connected residential rooftop PV system that
Among the investigated commercial crystalline is not economically feasible is that based on CIGS PV modules.
technologies, the m-Si PV modules generated the largest amount
of electricity, predominantly during the winter, spring, and IV. CONCLUSIONS
autumn months, followed closely by p-Si and HIT modules. Fig. Solar energy conversion received increased international
4 describes the monthly clean electricity produced by the PV attention, especially during the last decade. The cost of
installations based on studied thin film technologies. electricity generated by using different solar PV technologies
It can be noticed that the PV systems based on CdTe PV has become more and more competitive. In order to establish the
modules produced the largest amount of electricity, especially in most adequate solar PV technology for a particular area, a
the winter, spring, and autumn months, while CIGS PV comparative viability analysis of PV systems based of different
installations generated the lowest amount of electricity in the PV module technologies is required. This paper assessed the
category of thin film technologies. techno-economic feasibility of grid-connected rooftop PV
systems, with an installed power of about 6 kW, based on six PV
Fig. 5 presents the NPV for the investigated distributed modules technologies for a residence located in the Northwestern
generation units. Romania.
1000
CIGS CdTe a-Si The PVSOL premium 2021 software has been employed for
900 designing the PV installations and for simulating the power
800 produced by them. NPV, one of the most valuable techniques,
has been used for evaluating the feasibility of the investigated
Energy [kWh]

700
PV systems.
600
500 Although, the PV systems based on m-Si PV modules
generated the largest amount of clean electricity, the PV
400
installations based on p-Si technology proved to be the most
300 feasible alternative among the studied crystalline silicon
200 technologies, especially due to the more competitive installation
100 costs.
0 Similarly, the distributed generation unit based on thin film
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec a-Si modules did not produce the largest amount of electric
Month
energy among the PV installations based on thin film
Fig. 4. PV monthly electric energy output for thin film technologies technologies, but it proved to be the most profitable option in its
category.

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 Among the six investigated PV systems, the p-Si PV
installation represents the best alternative, followed closely by
a-Si and m-Si PV installations for the studied location. The
results of this study highlighted that the investment in five of the
six investigated PV systems is profitable for the analyzed
location. The findings of this study reveal that thin film
technologies represent an increasingly competitive alternative to
the crystalline silicon technologies.
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