Break-Even Cost for Residential Solar Water Heating in the United States: Key Drivers and Sensitivities

Cassard, H. ; Denholm, P. ; Ong, S.

关键词: ELECTRICITY;    HEATING;    HOT WATER;    NATURAL GAS;    PRICES;    SOLAR FRACTION;    SOLAR WATER HEATING SOLAR WATER HEATING;    SWH;    ELECTRICITY;    NATURAL GAS;    UNITED STATES;    BREAK-EVEN COST;    SOLAR FRACTION;    WATER HEATER;    SAM;    UTILITY;    Energy Analysis;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1007346
RP-ID  :  NREL/TP-6A20-48986
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1007346
Others  :  TRN: US201106%%903

学科分类：能源（综合）

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

This paper examines the break-even cost for residential rooftop solar water heating (SWH) technology, defined as the point where the cost of the energy saved with a SWH system equals the cost of a conventional heating fuel purchased from the grid (either electricity or natural gas). We examine the break-even cost for the largest 1,000 electric and natural gas utilities serving residential customers in the United States as of 2008. Currently, the break-even cost of SWH in the United States varies by more than a factor of five for both electricity and natural gas, despite a much smaller variation in the amount of energy saved by the systems (a factor of approximately one and a half). The break-even price for natural gas is lower than that for electricity due to a lower fuel cost. We also consider the relationship between SWH price and solar fraction and examine the key drivers behind break-even costs. Overall, the key drivers of the break-even cost of SWH are a combination of fuel price, local incentives, and technical factors including the solar resource location, system size, and hot water draw.