Social and private valuations of commercial photovoltaic systems in Australia

Commercial distributed PV systems present different economic values for each stakeholders in the electricity industry. While societal valuations are driven by PV performance and environmental cost, the private value depend on commercial arrangements between participants and PV policies. These estimations can play an important role helping to tailor PV policies that maximize PV benefits for industry participants. In this paper we assess the current and future social and private value of a particular commercial PV system for the society, retailers, DNSPs and PV customers using different pricing arrangements and carbon cost scenarios. Our results show that the economic value varies considerably for stakeholders, that the system is socially beneficial and that payback periods for PV owners range from 8 to 10 years.