Price of photovoltaic operation and maintenance components

What is a cost model for photovoltaic systems?

1 Introduction This report describes both mathematical derivation and the resulting software for a model to estimate operation and maintenance (O&M) costs related to photovoltaic (PV) systems. The cost model estimates annual cost by adding up many services assigned or calculated for each year.

Does operational and maintenance affect onshore wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) lifecycle costs?

In 2017, operations and maintenance (O&M) accounted for 20%–25% of lifecycle costs for wind and solar plants in Europe, but the understanding of O&M dynamics is limited. Presenting new data from Germany, here, we consider cumulative operating experience to estimate O&M experience curves for onshore wind and solar photovoltaic (PV).

Does PV O&M cost model predict corrective maintenance costs?

Appendix C contains service descriptions for corrective maintenance selections available in the PV O&M cost model. This cost model (described in Section 11) provides an estimated prediction of the corrective maintenance costs from year to year, but it is impossible to accurately predict when and where failures will specifically occur.

What is a reasonable expectation of PV system O&M costs?

Members of the working group have discussed these results and are currently recommending 0.5% for large systems and 1% of system initial cost per year for small systems as a reasonable expectation of PV system O&M costs. These heuristics inform an expectation of PV system O&M costs.

How much does a PV system cost?

Another estimate approximates O&M of PV systems at $40/kW/year (about 0.5% of initial cost per year for these early systems), about half of which is amortized inverter replacements (Wiser, Barbose, and Peterman 2009).

What is a PV O&M cost model?

The PV O&M cost model assumptions and modeled cost drivers represent dependencies on system size and type, site and environmental conditions, and age. Also, a detailed cost model allows investigation of how costs change over a very long performance period.