Techno-economic feasibility and sensitivity analysis of solar photovoltaic/battery for DC power in commercial buildings (NEOM city)

DC power is most effective when paired with local generation and storage due to increased energy efficiency, lower equipment capital cost, non-energy benefits, and new communication capabilities, such as plug-and-play for generation and storage. In this research work, techno-economic feasibility and sensitivity analysis for solar photovoltaic/battery (PV/B) to supply DC power to a specific commercial load in NEOM (New Future) city. Two main metrics are used to decide the optimal size of PV/B system: minimum COE “cost of energy” and minimum NPC “net present cost”. Three different battery types; EnerSys PowerSafe SBS 190F, Surrette S-260, and Iron Edison Industrial Series, are considered. In addition, three PV panels are used; Canadian Solar MaxPower CS6X-325P, CAT 117.5 W, and Jinko JKM275-60 with changing the tilt angles. The results confirmed that the best battery type and PV panels are Surrette S-260 and Jinko JKM275-60, respectively. The minimum COE and NPC are obtained at the tilt angle equal to the latitude of the site (29 degree). The optimal option includes 136 kW PV and 105 units of batteries; under this condition, the NPC and COE are 239,821 $ and 0.17 $/kWh.