1. A techno economic analysis of a residential solar Photovoltaic system installed in 2010 A comparative case study between California and Germany 1 Master of Science Thesis Swetha Ravi Kumar -TSUEM Supervisors Maria F Gomez (maria.gomez@energy.kth.se) Stephan Schindele (stephan.schindele@ise.fraunhofer.de) KTH School of Industrial Engineering and Management Department of Energy and Climate Studies (ECS) Stockholm, Sweden. Partner Institution: Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE Freiburg, Germany. 9 October, 2012

2. 2 Introduction Various policy instruments are being used to aid the fast growth of renewable energy technologies. California in the U.S and Germany in the EU have the largest solar PV installations in their respective regions. Both California and Germany support the growth of solar PV technologies using different policy instruments Evaluation of which policy instrument is being more effective and efficient. California (Net Energy Metering+ CSI + FTC ) Germany (Feed in Tariff) VS Quantity Price

3. 3 Research Questions -Methodology Is there a discounted savings effect for a residential solar PV systems installed in California and Germany for the time period 2010 2035? To find out which energy policy instrument is having the highest discounted savings effect To find out how the independent variables contribute towards the discounted savings effect

4. 4 Conclusions Solar PV systems, independent of the policy instrument are economically viable to the investors of residential sector. The systems installed make a net discounted benefit over its lifetime Despite this price variation in cost/Wp, the LCOE for both the regions are in close proximity. Germany reaches grid parity before the system in California, owing to the variation in retail electricity pricing in the respective regions Results from the DSM model present that the Californian system makes more benefit than the German despite the fact that the system size of California was smaller and more expensive. Grid parity is not a single point in time, but can be observed across time. Grid parity as a concept needs revision / else a new metric needs to be determined to help aid the solar industry.