Cost comparison between Amorphous Silicon and cadmium telluride for stand-alone photovoltaic system in Malaysia

The paper presents a cost comparison between amorphous silicon (a-Si) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology for a stand-alone photovoltaic system by applying life-cycle costing (LCC) method of analysis. A simulation tool; RETScreen is used to perform the financial analysis in setting up the stand-alone photovoltaic system for a typical house with an occupancy of four persons. The analysis consists of the photovoltaic cells cost per watt, efficiency and all factors contributing to the output power generated from these cells include the balance of the system, the battery storage, charge controller and inverter. From this investigation, although stand alone photovoltaic system provides several advantages from the environmental viewpoint, the major drawback is the fact that it costs ten times more than the cost of conservative energy. The price of energy for a standalone photovoltaic system ranges from RM 5.20/kWh for cadmium telluride to RM 5.32/kWh for amorphous silicon with an average of RM 5.26/kWh.