Effect of inflation, subsidizing and market pricing on the relative cost performance of solar PV and fossil fuel based power sources

In this paper, Life cycle cost analysis (LCCA) is employed to investigate the effect of economic factors like inflation, subsidizing and fuel price on 100W_P solar photovoltaic systems and conventional petrol and diesel generators (2-5kW) available in Bangladesh. Results show that Solar PV based home systems are economically lucrative as an energy sources compared to fossil fuel based power supplies under specific load ranges and generator ratings and the economic criteria also include market conditions which may fluctuate depending on government policies. This paper establishes the load ranges which would determine the viability of the renewable and fuel driven power sources considering pragmatic ratings of diesel and petrol generators available in the local market. Effect of escalation of price and discounting are also analyzed over the lifetime of power supply projects to verify their true commercial worth.