| Summary: | 碩士 === 康寧大學 === 資產管理與城市規劃研究所 === 101 === With the costs of conventional energy sources sky high and rising, countries all around the world focus on developing renewable energy. However, since utilizing renewable energy to generate electricity is still costly, countries generally promote it by granting subsidies. In Taiwan, subsides for photovoltaic solar energy are by wholesale electricity for developing renewable energy; in 2006, the Ministry of Economic Affairs launched the “Solar City Project” to encourage people and companies to install solar photovoltaics equipment on public or self-owned roofs. Nonetheless, the will to install such equipment by people or companies is related to investment costs and benefits. For this study, we used the Solar City of Tainan as a case to explore the main factors which affect the costs and benefits in solar photovoltaic investment.
According to results, the costs for solar photovoltaic investment include installation and operation-maintenance costs, where the major cost is from the former item. For the latter (which includes maintenance cost, roof rental, feedback fund), the major cost is maintenance. From the aspect in financial benefits, the primary factor is annual generation capacity. In this study we evaluated the solar panel efficiency of our case based on unit annual generation capacity. Results show that the main factors which affected power generation efficiency were the orientation of the roof panel and type – including what direction the panels face, the angle, and whether they might be blocked. Furthermore, the amount of subsidy the government shall provide is also the main factor which directly influences benefit.
Results by sensitivity analysis showed that the rate of change in annual generation capacity has the highest sensitivity to benefit aspects; on the other hand, the wholesale electricity price affected the break-even point of levelized cost. For the sensitivity from the aspect in cost, the construction cost has the greatest sensitivity, followed by the discount rate, and operation-maintenance costs. Our study reveals that just a slight change in annual generation capacity shall affect the loss/profit of the whole investment. Therefore, the key to the investment will be how to lower initial investment costs and increase generation capacity.
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