Energy Payback Time and Environmental Assessment on a 7 MW Photovoltaic Power Plant in Hamedan Province, Iran

Nowadays, environmental protection and efforts to reduce pollution, caused by industrial activities, on one hand, and research on finding new and improved energy supply options on the other, have become one of the major concerns of governments around the world. In recent years, photovoltaic (PV) systems, due to their proved potential are rapidly developed in most parts of the earth. The objective of this study, is to estimate the amount of CO2 emission reduction by implementing a 7 MW PV power plant. The location of this power plant is in the north of Hamedan province, Iran. Moreover, the amount of not consumed fossil fuel were measured. Finally, it is found that the total reduction of 134050 t CO2 will be achieved when PV power plant is used compared to a natural gas one, during 25 years. Moreover, in this paper, the energy payback time (EPBT) and the Energy Yield Ratio (EYR) are calculated. The results show that EPBT is about 5.5 years and EYR of mentioned PV power plant is more than 4.2.