Assessment of cost-competitiveness and profitability of fixed and tracking photovoltaic systems: The case of five specific sites

Abstract

Solutions that maximize the profitability and cost-competitiveness of photovoltaic projects are still necessary. Adding solar tracking mechanisms increase the energy production although it represent a cost reduction barrier. Therefore, the challenge is to balance the additional costs of trackers with yield increases. Due to the lack of studies that analyse when a tracker installation is more profitable than a fixed one, the calculation of the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE), among other most common economic assessment criteria, is proposed for several locations and different configurations, i.e. fixed, horizontal one-axis and two-axis tracking, where local technical and economic parameters were used. The first result shows that fixed and one-axis systems are cost-competitive respect to electricity tariffs, whereas two-axis ones are discouraged. LCOE differences up to 213%, 240% and 262% for fixed, one and two axis systems were detected among the locations analysed, however, a better scenario in LCOE terms does not mean better profitability results. Under certain circumstances, with the same LCOE results, one-axis photovoltaic systems are preferred over fixed ones. Therefore it is essential to identify optimization strategies according to technical, economic and financial parameters, as well as to include the electricity tariffs as a strategic variable in the analysis.