Techno-economic and environmental estimation assessment of floating solar PV power generation on Akosombo dam reservoir in Ghana

Abstract

Ghana has developed energy policies to help increase the use of renewable energy in its energy mix. With abundant water reservoirs and solar irradiation, the potential to deploy floating solar photovoltaic is feasible to increase the country’s renewable electricity generation. RETScreen Expert software was used for studying a proposed FPV-Hydro hybrid plant system. This study conducted a feasibility analysis for a 420 MWp FPV on Akosombo Dam reservoir a location with 4.66 kWh/m2/day solar energy. The study recommended FPV power plant with capacity factor of 14.1%, and would consist of 500,000 units of solar panels covering a minimum area of 2,460,457 m2 to generate a total annual electricity of 520,233 MWh. The project will save 73,327 cubic metres of water from evaporating which can produce approximately 10 MWp hydroelectric power annually. FPV economic analysis shown that it will results in lower LCOE of US$ 0.10/kWh, annual revenue of USD $52,238,576.00 and 12-years simple payback time, indicating positive economic indicators. Additionally, it will significantly reduce GHG emissions by 308,904.5 tCO 2/MWh annually. The FPV-Hydropower hybrid plants prove feasible and contributes to a greener and less costly energy generation system to meeting the 10% additional Renewable Energy (RE) target of Ghana.