A Comprehensive Overview with Planning Guidelines for the Adoption of Utility-Scale PV Systems

Growing demands for energy and global environmental concerns, along with continued advancements in sustainable energy technologies, are leading to prospects for using renewable energy resources. Solar is ubiquitous, and Photovoltaic (PV) is a promising innovation to harness the electric power from the sunlight. This paper aims to provide insight into the lifetime journey of a solar PV system. The article started with the history of solar PV systems, their expansion, and current research and development worldwide. The work is concluded with the degradation analysis and recycling methodologies. Also, this review especially concentrates on diverse standards and codes of photovoltaic system installation/integration. Various software was available to design small to large-scale PV systems. A comprehensive comparative study was made on the available software for the design of PV systems. Further, for the case study, a few rooftop PV systems of university buildings in India are considered for performance ratio analysis and life cycle cost assessment. The performance ratio of the 100 kW photovoltaic system exhibits an efficiency of 57% with a basic payback period of 5.6 years. The yearly lifespan cost of the photovoltaic system is $2947. Finally, the study’s findings and the barriers to the implementation of vast photovoltaic systems are highlighted to provide appropriate guidance to researchers working on large-scale PV system installations.