Abstract
Clearly and accurately communicating the economic, environmental, and social benefits of solar PV prosumerism poses significant challenges. Previous research shows that government policies and public engagement campaigns can positively impact solar prosumerism; however, little is known about the quality and accuracy of information exchanged between rooftop solar installers and potential prosumers. This study addresses part of this gap with a mixed methods approach. First, a multimodal discourse analysis of installation proposals from seven home solar installers in Madrid shows accurate and reasonable financial benefits alongside incongruent social and environmental benefits. Second, the calculated efficiency of the seven proposed solar installations is compared with the efficiency of four different PVSC solar arrays using actual load and generation profiles. The results show that (i) the high variability of actual household demand on the minute-by- minute level significantly decreases self-consumption rate and profitability in comparison with the rates estimated using hourly or monthly, and (ii) the grouping of households into solar communities should significantly increase self-consumption and profitability. Therefore, using minute by minute time series in home solar estimations would reveal an added value and social benefit that is commonly overlooked. We conclude with recommendations for future research and multimodal communication campaigns that balance benefits of individual prosumerism and community solar.
Highlights
Received: 25 November 2021The touchstone of this study is the Spanish adage, ‘El tiempo cura más que el sol’(time cures more than the sun)
The results show economic benefits and self-consumption rates are highly dependent on the time frames selected
We provide a review of Spanish renewable energy policy and the most recent changes related to “solar prosumerism” and “photovoltaic self-consumption” (PVSC), two terms which we use interchangeably, as is common in recent literature on self-consumption in Spain [19,20]
Summary
Received: 25 November 2021The touchstone of this study is the Spanish adage, ‘El tiempo cura más que el sol’(time cures more than the sun). Governments are banking on contributions from individual citizens, with small scale solar and rooftop installations promising individual prosumers and energy communities various economic, social, and environmental benefits [3]. And accurately communicating these potential benefits poses significant challenges, especially in relation to the unintuitive time variables often used to calculate the benefits of small scale solar. We provide a review of Spanish renewable energy policy and the most recent changes related to “solar prosumerism” and “photovoltaic self-consumption” (PVSC), two terms which we use interchangeably, as is common in recent literature on self-consumption in Spain [19,20]. Wind and solar capacity in Spain ramped up after 2005 and spiked after a RD 661/2007 offered favorable FIT for solar PV developers. A “gold-rush-like situation for investors” [21]
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