Life cycle energy and carbon footprint analysis of photovoltaic battery microgrid system in India

Abstract

Electricity supply in India is from a centralized grid. Many parts of the country experience grid interruptions. Life cycle energy and environmental analysis has been done for a 27 kWp photovoltaic system which acts as grid backup for 3 h outage in an Indian urban residential scenario. This paper discusses energy requirements and carbon emission for a PV storage system for five different battery technologies in Indian context. This can be used as a metric for comparative analysis for new batteries, with an undeveloped market. The energy requirements for the components are quantified and are compared in terms of energy payback time (EPBT) and Net Energy Ratio (NER). All the calculations are done for Indian context. EPBT is found to be in the range of 2-4.5 years for all the systems, while NER is in the range of 6.6-2.52. NaS has the highest emission factor of 0.67 kgCO(2)/kWh and the least for NiCd (0.091 kgCO(2)/kWh). These factors can be used to select a PV battery option and to target selection of materials and systems based on the reported values.