Software Design for Life Cycle Analysis of a Stand-Alone PV System in Turkey

Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA) is an economic method of project evaluation in which all costs arising from owning, operating, maintaining and ultimately disposing of a project are considered to be potentially important to that decision. LCCA is particularly suitable for the evaluation of building design alternatives that satisfy a required level of building performance, but that may have different initial investment costs; different operating, maintenance and repair (OM&R) costs; and possibly different lives. In this study, a software computer program for educational purposes is designed to determine initial, life cycle and unit energy costs of a stand-alone photovoltaic system in Turkey. Depending on the selected location, material and criteria, the proposed software implements the life cycle analysis of the system.