ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the life-cycle cost comparisons of photovoltaic (pv)-powered systems and the most likely conventional alternative system in each of the five application areas such as water pumping, communications, vaccine refrigeration, lighting and home power, and multi-use. It also presents the financial analysis that compares pv-powered water-pumping systems to diesel-powered systems for rural water supply, assuming development agency financing. The chapter provides the sensitivity analyses which indicate that diesel lifetime, fuel costs, discount and interest rate, irradiation, and pumping head all have a strong impact on the cost analysis. It examines the effect of changing capital cost estimates for both diesel- and pv-powered systems. The chapter also examines the effect that varying the cost of kerosene has on refrigeration costs. The base-case analysis concentrates on home power systems, the major components of which are lighting. Entire home power systems often involve a mixture of conventional power sources.
