On the equivalence and comparison of economic criteria for energy projects: Application on PV/diesel hybrid system optimal design

This paper aims to answer to the following question: under which hypothesis different economic criteria will lead to the same conclusion, that is the same decision concerning investment or the same ranking of different projects or the same optimal design of an energy project. Three concepts of equivalence of economic methods equivalence are introduced, namely the decision making equivalence, the optimal design equivalence and the ranking equivalence. the analysis performed is then applied to optimally design a PV/diesel hybrid power system for a rural area.