Techno-Economic Assessment of Different Solar PV Configurations for a Typical House in Dhahran

Solar PV market is expected to expand significantly as the residential sector investments in this market have started increasing recently. This creates a golden opportunity for Saudi Arabia which aims to achieve 50% renewable penetration by 2030. However, the public is not yet confident of the financial gains of rooftop solar PV, so this rises the need for detailed feasibility study that considers local metrological data, prices, and regulations. In this paper, two different designs of grid-connected and standalone PV are studied, starting by evaluating the average electricity consumption of 3 houses and the utilization of standard load profile (SLP) concept to achieve reasonable hourly data. Then, local metrological data and system components pricings are collected. After that, HOMER is used to simulate and analyze system performance, and determining the feasibility of the system using two variables as references, which are levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and payback period. The study showed that grid-connected PV system could provide 28% reduction in LCOE compared to grid-only case with a payback period of 14 years, while for the standalone case the LCOE is still relatively high. Eventually, the study successfully proved the feasibility of grid-connected rooftop PV system, but with long payback period.