Abstract:
Pakistan is mainly dependent on fossil fuels for its energy production. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the country to meet the growing demand of electricity. This scenario provides the basis for research and development strategy to implement alternative green energy technologies to reduce the environmental and economic burden on Pakistan’s energy sector. Taking Bahria University Islamabad as a case, the current study aimed to make design feasibility, calculate Carbon Footprint from electricity consumption by grid electricity and generators, levelized cost of energy, cost-benefit analysis of installation of a solar photovoltaic system and introducing the concept of net metering. The collected data included electricity bills and diesel consumption (with cost) of generators for the year 2014. The study revealed that annual carbon foot prints of the building from grid electricity are 296131.67 (kgCO₂e), 57640(kgCO₂e) of carbon footprints are added by the generators used to provide electricity annually; whereas the solar panels have zero carbon emissions. The Net Present Value of solar photovoltaic system installation is Rs.28,478,834 which will result in a positive cash flow and IRR is 26.9%, which is greater than investment on bank saving for which the discount rate is considered at 6.5%. The Cost Payback Time for this investment, only 4.4 years, is pretty cost effective. The levelized cost of electricity is 24.7 Rs/kWh that is fixed solar electrical cost that remains the same throughout the lifetime of the solar plant. The proposed mix energy system contains 59% of fossil fuel energy, 11% of solar energy and 30% of generator. Moreover, the concept of net metering is proven to be an influential parameter to encourage the use solar PV system. Categorically, all of the acquired results and present growing energy demand calls for more and more investment in solar energy.
