Techno-economic Analysis of Novel PV Plant Designs for Extreme Cost Reductions

A techno-economic analysis is performed examining the cost and performance of future large-scale photovoltaic (PV) plant components, including bifacial modules, tandem modules, increased plant voltage architectures, and module-level power electronics. PV plant designs incorporating these components are compared with current PV technologies based on levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). Baseline models are developed and validated with plant performance data. Expected performance and costs of PV technologies are incorporated into the baseline models. An evolutionary algorithm is utilized to optimize PV plant configurations and LCOE. This follow-on analysis focuses on tandem modules, increased plant voltage architectures, and module-level power electronics.