Performance and feasibility assessment ...

This paper presents design and evaluation of grid-connected photovoltaic system in Oman. Hourly global and diffuse solar radiation data as well as ambient temperature data for one year time have been used. REPS.OM software is used to design the proposed system which is a 1.4 kWp PV system. The designed system is implemented practically and experimentally tested for six months to check the technical and economic feasibility. The system is evaluated using two technical criteria which are capacity and yield factors. In addition, system feasibility is evaluated in terms of the cost of energy and payback period. The results showed that the capacity and yield factors for the proposed system are 21% and 1875 kWh/kWp/year respectively. In the meanwhile, the cost of the energy generated and the payback period of the proposed system are 0.045 USD/kWh and 11years, respectively.   This study contains valuable experiment data for researchers and investors who are interested in photovoltaic system investment in Oman and nearby desertic zons