EU-Comparison of the Economic Viability of Prosumer PV Systems

In Europe, both the solar irradiation and the support schemes for a household with a PV or a PV battery system differ considerably from country to country. This paper analyses the influence of these factors on economical Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and aims to cluster European countries with similar economic behaviour. The paper focuses on the producer and consumer (=prosumer) concept of residential PV owners. The analysis shows that PV systems are only a positive business case, i.e. a positive NPV calculated based on all economic and technical inputs of each location, in some countries, while in other countries a negative NPV is obtained due to the framework conditions. The PV system in Malta reached the highest NPV due to a high feed-in-tariff. Lowest NPVs were reached for Iceland, Finland, Sweden and UK with no support scheme or only a small feed-in tariff, while also having a lower PV irradiation.