Review of photovoltaic power plant performance and economics

Abstract

The author reviews the performance, availability, and maintenance for ten photovoltaic plants since 1983. Problems are examined and achievable capacity factors are presented. The cost of photovoltaic electricity is developed as a function of investment cost, maintenance costs, and capacity factor, which in turn is shown to depend upon the site, the plant's availability, and the tracking employed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>