Techno-economic evaluation reveals low levelized electricity costs for residential rooftop solar installations, suggesting small-scale systems provide optimal investment performance.
Key Points
To evaluate the lifecycle cost and levelized cost of electricity of residential rooftop solar photovoltaic systems and develop an investment decision framework for decentralized energy in Nigeria.
Assessed 17 residential rooftop solar photovoltaic systems over an estimated 25-year operational lifecycle in Ibadan, Nigeria, using a real discounting approach.
Collected primary data using structured questionnaires distributed via purposive and snowball sampling, followed by correlation, regression, and quadrant-based cost-performance categorization.
Initial capital expenditures accounted for approximately 45% to 50% of total lifecycle costs, with equipment replacement constituting a major portion of ongoing expenses.
Estimated levelized cost of electricity ranged from ₦16.40/kWh ($0.011/kWh) to ₦68.12/kWh ($0.045/kWh), with a sample mean of ₦37.33/kWh ($0.025/kWh).
Systems with 1–5 kW capacity predominantly occupied the low lifecycle cost and low levelized electricity cost quadrant, while regression demonstrated an insignificant correlation between system capacity and unit energy cost.