Energy performance, environmental impact, and cost assessments of a photovoltaic plant under Kuwait climate condition

In this study, investigation of the energy performance, environmental impact, and cost assessments of one MWp plant using the main 2017 market available photovoltaic technologies under hot climatic conditions for the state of Kuwait is carried out. Influence of climatic parameters on modules efficiencies, net energy production per unit area and plant performance ratio with PV modules made from crystalline silicon-based and thin film technologies-based is assessed on hourly, daily, monthly, and yearly basis respectively. The PV modules technologies used are the monocrystalline, polycrystalline, and thin-film with cell types of cadmium telluride (CdTe) and CdS/CdTe semiconductor. These technologies are assessed based on their manufacturer provided characteristics and an average of 20 years hourly climatic data of the ambient air-dry temperatures, horizontal solar radiation, and average wind speed for the state of Kuwait. The result show that compared with monocrystalline as a base of minimum required modules area, it is found that: the polycrystalline technology plant requires an additional area of 19.33%, thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe) plant needs extra area of 8.39% and thin-film cadmium sulphide (CdS)/cadmium telluride (CdTe) (CdS/CdTe) plant needs extra area of 39.76%, respectively. The net produced annual energy per unit area compared with the monocrystalline PV technology are as follows. The Polycrystalline technology produces less annual net energy per unit area by −10.54%, thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology produces less annual energy per unit area by −6.07%, and thin-film CdS/CdTe technology produces less annual energy per unit area by −22.73%, respectively. The main study conclusion is that the thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology has the yearly average right energy cost performance parameters with less Levelised energy produced and capital cost with minimum environmental harmful emission and it can be recommended for use under Kuwait climate condition.