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The purpose of this paper is to focus on life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) of 1 MW roof-top Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels installed in warm and humid climatic region in Southern India. The effect of actual power generated from solar PV panels on financial indicators is evaluated.

LCCA is done using the actual power generated from solar PV panels for one year. The net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), simple payback period (SPP) and discounted payback period (DPP) are determined for a base case scenario. The effect of service life and the differences between the ideal power expected and the actual power generated is evaluated.

A base case scenario is evaluated using the actual power generation data, 25-year service life and 6 percent discount rate. The NPV, IRR, SPP and DPP are found to be INR 13m, 8 percent, 10.9 years and 18.8 years respectively. It is found that the actual power generated is about one-third less than the ideal power estimated by consultants prior to project bidding. The payback period increases by 70–120 percent when the actual power generated from solar PV panels is considered.

The return on investment calculated based on ideal power generation data without considering the operation and maintenance related aspects may lead to incorrect financial assessment. Hence, strategies toward solar power generation should also focus on the actual system performance during operation.

This paper allows more accurate estimation of the economy in investing in PV electrification for buildings, especially for Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCCC) where they have nearly similar climate and building structure. The actual solar electricity yield from this building is used to make empirical modelling.

The accurate automated daily-recorded solar electricity from 8.64 kW solar PV on a rooftop of Sadeem Building at Awali, Bahrain, was modelled to polynomial equations of order of 6. The effect of the tilt (β) and azimuth (Ψ) angle of PV panels for smart and sustainable buildings is studied.

The correlation of each set of polynomial equation (R²) is listed and had reached a highest value of 0.9792 (for order of 6) with lowest value of 0.1853 (for order of 1). The model may be also applied to the GCCC. The results show that each kW of PV will have a solar electricity yield, on average, of 4.1 kWh. It also shows that the tilt angle has little influence on the solar electricity yield (less than 10%) when the tilt angle changed from 26° to 0° or from 26° to 50°. The influence of the azimuth angle is found to be more than 50% in changing Ψ from 90° to 180°.

The model may not be restricted to Bahrain but applies – to a certain extent – to GCCC (six countries) and to other countries having buildings with similar roof design and at latitude close to the latitude of Bahrain.

The model enables developers and investors to estimate, with high accuracy, the solar electricity provided from a building if PV panels are to be installed on its rooftop (or facade) at different tilt (β) and azimuth (Ψ) angle for smart and sustainable buildings.

Empirically finding out how much each kW of solar PV integrated to the building will produce solar energy electricity (in kWh), that is, 1 kW of PV yield, on average, 4.1 kWh.

Establishing empirical models to evaluate the outcome of each installed kW of PV panels. Each 1 kW installation of PV panels is 4.0 kWh/day, on average. This is less than what commercial companies claim for this region, that is, 1 kW produces 5.5 kWh/ day – which affects the estimated economic outcome of PV projects.

This research is focused on solar-powered (smart) urban furniture, and it is aimed at providing a classification of it and to understand the main problems related to the adoption of these devices and where future design-led research should focus.

The methodology involved a selection of international case studies in important urban contexts focussing on three main aspects: architectural integration, context sensitivity and system visibility of photovoltaic (PV) technologies applied to smart urban furniture.

The preliminary results indicate that potential limits to the application of these technologies are urban morphology and lack of design of some solutions.

This research is focused on solar-powered (smart) urban furniture. Further investigation on built case studies may lead to a better understanding of the efficiency of the smart urban furniture and their appreciation by the people.

This study can be useful to understand the potential use and customization of these products in New Zealand.

In Auckland’s central business district, these tools can be useful to help homeless people to recharge their phones and offer access to free Wi-Fi. Energy generation can be useful also for providing temporary heating during winter and so forth.

Design proposals and research highlight public benefits of smart urban furniture without considering aspects like their integration with the surrounding context. This is also the first study that identifies lack of design in some of the solutions available in the market.

In response to increasing concerns about climate change and evolving public policies, consumer behaviour and attitudes are shifting towards the adoption of renewable energy solutions like photovoltaic (PV) panel systems. This study aims to address this shift by developing a conceptual framework grounded in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and Diffusion of Innovation theory. The framework identifies and analyses the factors influencing Vietnamese consumers’ decisions to install PV panels, focusing on the roles of consumer innovativeness, government incentives and social influence. By examining these dynamics, this study offers insights to inform policy in promoting renewable energy adoption.

Data from 339 Vietnamese households were analysed using SmartPLS 3.0 to test the proposed hypotheses. A structured questionnaire survey focused on consumer innovativeness, government incentives and social influence. The partial least squares structural equation modelling approach was used to evaluate the relationships between constructs.

The findings indicate that consumer innovativeness significantly predicts knowledge, sustainable lifestyles and attitudes towards solar PV panels. Moreover, household attitudes are influenced by government incentives and knowledge, but not by sustainable lifestyles. Crucially, the intention to install solar PV panels among Vietnamese households is positively affected by facilitating conditions, government incentives and social influence.

The results can assist government officials and policymakers in emerging markets in devising strategies to alleviate environmental burdens and facilitate a shift towards sustainability. Furthermore, by understanding the factors impacting the residents’ intention, public communication can be improved to raise awareness of environmental concerns and sustainable lifestyles, which results in the encouragement of the purchase and installation intention of solar panels.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is facing a rapid growth in energy demand mainly because of factors like burgeoning population, economic growth, modernization and infrastructure development. It is estimated that between 2000 and 2017 the power consumption has increased from 120 to 315 TWh. The building sector has an important role in this respect as it accounts for around 80 percent of the total electricity consumption. The situation is imposing significant energy, environmental and economic challenges for the country. To tackle these problems and curtail its dependence on oil-based energy infrastructure, KSA is aiming to develop 9.5 GW of renewable energy projects by 2030. The campus of the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) has been considered as a case study. In the wake of recently announced net-metering policy, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the prospects of rooftop application of PV in buildings. ArcGIS and PVsyst software have been used to determine the rooftop area and undertake PV system modeling respectively. Performance of PV system has been investigated for both horizontal and tilted installations. The study also investigates the economic feasibility of the PV application with the help of various economic parameters such as benefit cost ratio, simple payback period (SPP) and equity payback periods. An environmental analysis has also been carried out with the help of RETScreen software to determine the savings in greenhouse gas emissions as a result of PV system.

This study examines the buildings of the university campus for utilizable rooftop areas for PV application. Various types of structural, architectural and utilities-related features affecting the use of building roofs for PV have been investigated to determine the corrected area. To optimize the performance of the PV system as well as space utilization, modeling has been carried out for both horizontal and tilted applications of panels. Detailed economic and environmental assessments of the rooftop PV systems have also been investigated in detail. Modern software tools such as PVsyst, ArcGIS and RETScreen have also been used for system design calculations.

Saudi Arabia is embarking on a massive solar energy program as it plans to have over 200 GW of installed capacity by 2030. With solar energy being the most abundant of the available renewable resource for the country, PV is going to be one of the main technologies in achieving the set targets. The country has, however, unlike global trends, traditionally overlooked the small-scale and building-related application of solar PV, focusing mainly on larger projects. This study explores the prospects of utilization of solar PV on building roofs. Building rooftops are constrained in terms of PV application owing to wide ranging obstacles that can be classified into five types – structural, services, accessibility, maintenance and others. The total building rooftop area in the study zone, calculated through ArcGIS has been found to be 857,408 m² of which 352,244 m² is being used as car parking and hence is not available for PV application. The available roof area, 505,165 m² is further hampered by construction and utilities related features including staircases, HVAC systems, skylights, water tanks and satellite dish antennas. Taking into account the relevant obstructive features, the net rooftop area covered by PV panels has been found to be in the range 25–41 percent depending upon the building typology, with residential buildings offering the least. To optimize both the system efficiency and space utilization, PV modeling has been carried out with the help of PVsyst software for both the tilted and horizontal installations. In terms of output, PV panels with tilt angle of 24° have been found to be 9 percent more efficient compared to the horizontally installed ones. Modeling results provide a net annual output 37,750 and 46,050 MWh from 21.44 and 28.51 MW of tilted and horizontal application of PV panels, sufficient to respectively meet 16 and 20 percent of the total campus electricity requirements. Findings of the economic analysis reveal the average SPP for horizontal and tilted applications of the PV to be 9.2 and 8.4 years, respectively. The benefit cost ratio for different types of buildings for horizontal and tilted application has been found to be ranging between 0.89 and 2.08 and 0.83 and 2.15, respectively. As electricity tariff in Saudi Arabia has been increased this year by as much as 45 percent and there are plans to remove $54bn of subsidy by 2020, the cost effectiveness of PV systems will be greatly helped. Application of PV in buildings can significantly improve their environmental performance as the findings of this study reveal that the annual greenhouse gas emission in the KFUPM campus can be reduced by as much as 40,199 tons carbon dioxide equivalent.

The PV application on building roof especially from economic perspective is an area which has not been addressed thus far. Khan et al. (2017) studied the power generation potential for PV application on residential buildings in KSA. Asif (2016) also investigated power output potential of PV system in different types of buildings. Dehwas et al. (2018) adopted a detailed approach to determine utilizability of PV on residential building roofs. None of these studies have covered the economics of PV systems. This study attempts to address the gap and contribute to the scholarship on the subject. It targets to determine the power output from different types of building in an urban environment by taking into account building roof conditions. It also provides detailed economic assessment of PV systems. Subsequent environmental savings are also calculated.

The solar energy sector has been growing with dramatic reduction in commercial pricing, improved efficiencies and improved deployments/usage conveniences. The purpose of this study is to understand the drivers of the purchase intent for rooftop (RT) solar. This will enable policymakers to improve the penetration of this new and promising green technology.

This research leverages the framework of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2 (UTAUT2) to identify and build a quantitative approach to identify factors (and their relative impact on) the purchase intent of a domestic RT solar buyer. The 400 respondents’ field data were collected in Bangalore (a high RT solar penetration region) and Delhi NCR (relatively lower RT solar penetration region).

The exploratory factor analysis study revealed that the consumers’ purchase intention of RT Solar is shaped by seven main factors, namely, environmental concerns, social beliefs, hedonic motivation, performance expectancy, price value, self-efficacy and effort expectancy, and that these factors explain 79.2 per cent of the field data. This study finds that social beliefs followed by effort expectance concerns are key factors explaining approximately 20 per cent of the purchase intent each, while unit change in price value beliefs explain about 18 per cent of the purchase intent.

Suggested policy measures include building on strengthening emergence of local solar evangelist groups in the communities and easing effort expectance items (e.g. building legal, regulatory frameworks and financial tools for solar penetration models such as renewable energy services companies).

This paper is the first attempt to model the consumer behavior of the Indian RT solar photovoltaic buyer leveraging the UTAUT2.

The purpose of this paper is to design and develop an IR and sprinkler based embedded controller operated robotic arm for automatic dust removal system to mitigate the dust effect on the solar panel surface, since dust accumulation normally affected by real weather conditions is one of the serious concern for the deterioration of photovoltaic (PV) system output.

The system is a wet cleaning device which provides a cheap silicon rubber-based wiping operation controlled by the pulse width modulation-operated motors of robotic arm. The IEEE 1149.1-compliant mixed signal-embedded platform of C8051F226DK is involved to command the complete system.

A prototype of 30 W_P system is capable of producing an inspiring average value of 11.26 per cent in energy increase, 13.63 per cent in PV module efficiency and 85.20 per cent in performance ratio of the system after 73 days of cleaning in summer season. In addition, a total of 1,617.93 W power; 1,0516.55 Wh energy; and 350.55 KWh/KW_P final yield was found during the entire cleaning period.

A novel technique of the implementation of IR sensor and sprinkler in dust mitigation is proposed in this paper. The IR sensor is used as a versatile object which can manage the robotic arm setting and control the automatic switching between cleaning and charging, as well as identify the thermal condition of solar panel for overheating.

Green entrepreneurs driven by environmental concerns stand at the heart of greening the economic activities right from their inception. This study aims to conceptualize this emerging concept in the context of developing nations by identifying the factors that shape the green entrepreneurship ecosystem with special reference to the solar energy sector in Gujarat.

This study is exploratory in nature and relies on secondary literature available on green entrepreneurship. Case study approach has been used for which primary data has been collected by formal scheduled interviews of three green entrepreneurs operating in the renewable energy sector of Gujarat, India. Cross-case analysis has been taken up to analyze the findings.

This study offers valuable insights into the major motivations and barriers as well as policy suggestions to foster an environment of green entrepreneurship, particularly in the renewable energy sector of India.

Because of the chosen approach wherein only three case studies have been considered of green entrepreneurs operating in the renewable energy sector of Gujarat, the results cannot be generalized, as they are also sector specific. Further researches can take up more quantitative approaches to make the results generalizable and extend them to other sectors.

Exploring the opportunities and challenges of green entrepreneurship in renewable energy sector has significant sector specific policy implications for developing countries like India.

Green entrepreneurship’ is a relevant but under-researched topic, especially in the developing nations’ context. This study adds to the literature by making a sector specific analysis of green entrepreneurs in renewable energy sector of Gujarat.

This paper aims to evaluate the hypothetical situation in a resembling airport to Esenboga Airport and analyzes the condition of all ground support equipment (GSE) equipment to be supplied by electricity produced by solar panels mounted on the rooftop of the terminal building. The case is discussed using environmental emissions and economic feasibility. The results of the resembling case can be generalized to all airports for the reduction of emissions caused by ground operations of aviation.

GSE fleet data which has been prepared by TGS operated in the Esenboğa Airport have been used to calculate emissions, and equivalent electricity consumption. A hypothetical solar panel construction on the rooftop of the terminal building and also the electricity production case was analyzed. Based on the calculations, both fuel and electricity use cases are compared by means of emissions and production costs using real data.

The electricity production and transmission pose a high value of emissions. Thus, electrification of GSE in the airport need a new approach such as producing the electric energy in the site. This research analyzes the case that the electricity is produced on the rooftop of terminal building and consumed by the GSE fleet. The authors discussed that it is both feasible and possible to electrify all the GSE except a shortage of two cold months with high fuel demand by using electric storage options.

Ground handling is performed by using GSE which is historically powered by diesel and such internal combustion engines which are well known for their high emission rates. As most of the airports reside in populated areas, GSE emissions need to be evaluated for reduction. However the electric energy could be an alternative for GSE emissions reduction

Aviation is a system of many subsystems in which the performance of each unit plays a crucial role in the final success of the system. Concerns on environmental protection make the aviation industry focus on reducing emissions produced during operations. Although aircraft emissions are widely discussed in the literature, ground handling systems which are an integral part of the whole aviation system, also need to be studied regarding the environmental issues. Besides, the European Union has set out targets of reducing emissions at the airports during ground operations to zero. This paper discusses the possibility of the target by comparing various scenarios