FEASIBILITY STUDY OF PHOTOVOLTAIC PANEL IN HDB FLATS

Abstract

Global Warming is one of the contemporary challenges face by the global community. It is the emissions through human activities that substantially increase the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases, resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth's surface. Yet in today‟s society, it is impossible to refrain from consuming energy. While changes in behavior and lifestyle may play a small part in the reduction of energy consumption, the majority of the contribution to the emission of carbon still lies within the living environment. With the drop of price of solar photovoltaic panels by more than half since 2008, it can be seen that the generation cost of photovoltaic electricity will soon compete with the conventional retail electricity prices from the grid power. Over the decades, the breakthroughs in technologies have made photovoltaic system technology become a more feasible approach to replace grid power. However, the installation cost of the PV system now is considered relatively high at present and would be incongruous for HDB housing to be integrated with photovoltaic system if the investment cost of PV system is so high that HDB housing becomes unaffordable for buyers. This study aims to examine the feasibility of deploying photovoltaic cells in typical Housing and Development Board residential flats as a solar energy generating technique in Singapore. The objective is to identify the payback period which include inflation rate and discount rate. The Housing and Development Board residential building at Serangoon North Precinct and the Zero Energy Building @ BCA Academy were chosen as case studies. From the case studies, it is estimated that the payback period for photovoltaic is approximately 32 years. Despite the considerable payback period to decide on the implementation photovoltaic system throughout Singapore buildings, environmental benefits should also be a considered when installing of photovoltaic system are recommended.