Empowering the solar energy landscape: The techno-economic analysis of grid-connected PV power plants in Uganda

Abstract

Solar PV power is still under-utilized despite the abundance of solar radiation in Uganda. There is need for empowering renewable energy landscape through unlocking the technical and economic feasibility of solar photovoltaic power. We analyzed data from 56 locations for the techno-economic and environmental assessment of photovoltaic power facilities in Uganda. This was based on weather data availability and accessibility to the national power grid. Analysis of the energy generation and different input factors was done using PVsyst 7.2. A three stage approach to losses was adopted: absorption of sunlight, conversion to DC and DC to AC conversion. Findings indicate that most of the countryside is suitable for construction of large scale grid-connected photovoltaic power facilities. Due to longer sunshine duration and stronger Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) which are associated with high energy yield, northern Uganda performed better than the rest of the country, making it a preferential siting for large scale grid-connected photovoltaic facilities. South western Uganda performed the poorest. After a thorough energy accounting and a list of all performance metrics, the viability of investing in grid-connected photovoltaic power facilities was assessed.