Levelized electricity cost for photovoltaic system in Sohar-Oman

Solar Photovoltaic (PV) is suitable for electricity generation in stand-alone power system in rural desert areas in Oman, where solar energy resources are the highest. In this research a 3080 W solar PV system have been designed to investigate the PV performance. The average daily load demand is 4.7 kWh/day and details loads are listed. The energy that is generated by the PV technology has been estimated using real weather data for Sohar-Oman. Basic principles of designing a quality PV system have been used to design the system. HOMER software is used to levelize, analysis and estimate the life cycle of the PV system. The cost of PV system energy is calculated with different sizes for PV, battery and converter. The results indicate that the solar energy utilization is an attractive option with initial cost, net present cost of the system, and energy cost are 7,160 $, 13,077 $, and 0.389 $/kWh, respectively, in comparison with diesel generator operating cost 0.558 $/kWh. We conclude that using the PV system for rural desert areas in Oman is justified on economic and technical grounds.