The Garage of the Future: Maximizing the Economic Value of Solar Panels

Solar energy, specifically energy produced from photovoltaic (PV) solar cells, is being considered as a major source of clean electric energy for the power systems of the future. A major untapped source of PV energy is through residential installations. Combined with electric transportation, the intelligent grid, and other renewable technologies, PV systems offer the opportunity to offset a significant amount of green house gas emissions normally produced in urban transportation and the production of electricity. A major obstacle in the large scale adoption of residential PV is the high initial costs relative to the effective revenue received from the PV plant energy output. This paper investigates the different conditions for maximizing the economic value of a residential PV plant both to the home owner and to the utility. First the different methods of residential billing and the respective impact on PV plant revenue are discussed. Next, the existing evaluation tools available for modeling residential PV plant energy output and revenue generation are described. The paper then addresses an approach for maximizing the economic value of a PV plant that cannot be evaluated with the existing PV plant modeling tools. The approach considers that the panel orientation for maximum economic value may be different than the traditional orientation for maximum power production. Research performed in the creation of a novel method for quantifying the economic value for different panel orientations of an existing residential PV plant is described. Results from that research along with projections of the associated economic impact to both the residential owner and to the utility are presented.