Comparative analysis of the economic feasibility of five large-power photovoltaic irrigation systems in the Mediterranean region

Abstract The electricity costs for agricultural applications is dramatically increasing in the last years, making the solutions based on photovoltaics more attractive once the technological barriers that impeded high-power PV irrigation systems (PVIS) have been removed. But the data available in the literature are restricted to small-power PVIS what limits the feasibility assessment of the investment in this kind of systems for agricultural applications. This paper presents a comparative economic feasibility analysis of five large-power PVIS in the range from 40 to 360 kWp in the Mediterranean region, considering the investment required for each installation and the savings that they produce based on the real data of their performance during the years 2016 and 2017. The results show that the investment in PVIS in the Mediterranean region is always profitable, for all of the PVIS configurations and the powers considered in this study and even with frequent occurrences of events of lack of water that obliges the PVIS to stop, showing IRR values between 10 and 28%, and LCOE values ranging from 0.04 to 0.20 €/kWh. Moreover, the results allow concluding that PVIS that has a seasonal water pool and a strong water source show the best results in the feasibility analysis and, therefore, in order to segment the market for the introduction of large-power PVIS, the substitution of conventional power in this kind of existing irrigation networks, would be the priority.