Economic and Policy Evaluation of Solar Energy for Indiana Business and Residential Applications

Evaluating the Economics of Solar PV Systems Solar energy has been expanding in the U.S. and globally recently, as have other renewable energy sources such as wind, hydro, and biomass, because they are clean and sustainable. Solar energy can easily be installed by individual consumers at a relatively small-scale and may be more profitable compared to electricity from grids under certain conditions. Thus, we are interested in evaluating the economics of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems installed in individual homes or farms. Indiana is also expanding solar energy with other renewables to protect its environment because 95% of electricity is generated from coal (U.S. Energy Information Administration (U.S. EIA), 2014). Due to the infancy of the technology, however, there has been little information for citizens who consider adopting solar PV systems in homes and farm businesses. Thus, we need to evaluate the economics of solar PV systems so that people can have information on whether or not it is profitable to adopt solar PV systems.