Environmental, technical and financial feasibility study of domestic solar water heating system in India

Abstract

Abstract The basic aim of this research work is to investigate the environmental, technical, and financial viability of evacuated tube type solar water heating (SWH) systems at different geographical locations across seven cities of India. The RETScreen SWH project model is used to evaluate the energy production and savings, solar fraction, costs, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, financial viability and risk factors for the SWH projects at the various locations. The financial viability of the SWH project is demonstrated by the parameters like simple payback period (SPP), equity payback period (EPP), internal rate of return (IRR), and modified internal rate of return (MIRR). The study shows that all sites have more than 60% of solar fractions and the gross GHG emission reduction for 25\xa0years of project life is 739 tCO2. The payback period obtained for seven occupants for the typical household is between 7 and 10\xa0years except for Delhi and Indore. It can be also concluded that at least 50% incentives must be provided by the government to make such installation feasible.