Shared PV systems in multi-scaled communities

Abstract: In the past years, Sweden had been facing rapid growth of photovoltaic cells and total PV installation capacity increased from 300 kW to 1090 MW (2006-2020). To increase the number of PV users and therefore assist in achieving multiple sustainable goals regarding renewable energy, the installations of such systems were actively supported by the Swedish government. This project is aimed at evaluating the profitability of shared PV systems in communities of different sizes in Sweden. The current study used 1067 hourly measured electricity profiles of individual Swedish apartments to create multi-scaled communities with shared PV systems. The trading model was implemented to simulate electricity trading among prosumers in the community using Visual Basic Applications (VBA) in Excel. Further, the electricity costs were used for Life Cycle Cost Assessment (LCC). The LCC results for shared PV systems were later compared to households that own PV individually and households that do not own a PV system to demonstrate the increase in profitability. The results were obtained for two locations in Sweden: Karlstad and Kiruna. The results portrayed the financial benefits of shared PV systems in comparison with individually owned PV systems.