Levelized cost of electricity for the deployment of solar photovoltaic plants: The region of León (Spain) as case study

Abstract

In the current context of mandatory growth of renewable energy sources for electrical supply, in order to reduce CO2 emissions in the process of electricity generation, it is worth interest to evaluate the feasibility of the deployment of new large solar photovoltaic production facilities. This study seeks to analyze the costs and benefits of this type of infrastructures, considering the region of León (Spain) as case study due to its high potential. The Levelized Cost of Energy is used in this study as main decision tool, so a sensibility study on this indicator has been carried out, including the financial interest rates, the capital and operation expenditures, the facilities performance and the expected life span of the installations. Three main locations have been selected in the region, close to the main power demand sites, in order to minimize power distribution losses between the power plants and end-users. Results show that an LCOE in the range between 0.21 and 0.26 €/kWh can be achieved. The simplified calculation presented allows a preliminary and quick assessment of the grid parity of a photovoltaic plant in locations where they are not known in detail.