tradvolt.com > Use Cases > Airport GSE Solar 300 kWp (US)
Segment: Airport Ground Service Equipment (GSE) | Region: United States | Array size: 300 kWp DC | Reviewer: muse-ba | Evidence date: 15 January 2026
For a modelled 300 kWp DC ground-mount PV canopy (equipment scope: LONGi Hi-MO 5m LR5-72HBD bifacial mono-PERC modules paired with Sungrow ST125CX three-phase string inverters, ground-screw fixed-tilt racking) powering airport GSE charging in the United States, over a 25-year horizon at a 5.00% real discount rate, the scenario model returns an NPV of +USD 343,618.04, an IRR of 11.95%, a simple payback of 8.28 years, a discounted payback of 10.74 years, and an LCOE of USD 0.0870/kWh. Limitation: simple and discounted payback are well inside the 18-year airport-capex horizon, and LCOE sits below the modelled US commercial displaced-grid price of $0.115/kWh (margin ≈ $0.028/kWh) — the project is NPV-positive with comfortable payback; pair with the IRS Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Credit (https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/clean-electricity-investment-credit) for incremental margin.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Currency | USD |
| Horizon (years) | 25 |
| Discount rate | 5.00 % |
| Total undiscounted cost (USD) | 598,963.62 |
| Total discounted cost / PV of costs (USD) | 500,111.03 |
| Total undiscounted benefit (USD) | 1,572,178.44 |
| Total discounted benefit (USD) | 843,729.06 |
| NPV (USD) | 343,618.04 |
| IRR | 0.1195 |
| Simple payback (year) | 8.28 |
| Discounted payback (year) | 10.74 |
| LCOE (USD/kWh) | 0.0870 |
This worksheet estimates the 25-year total cost of ownership of a 300 kWp DC ground-mount photovoltaic canopy powering GSE charging at a US airport. Scope boundary: modules, racking, inverters, AC/DC BOS, grid interconnection on the airport microgrid, O&M, module degradation, and inverter replacement at year 15. Excluded: civil-works upgrades beyond pile-driven foundations, EVSE hardware for the GSE fleet, airport concession fees, ITC tax-equity structuring, and insurance.
Explicit equipment scope (R12):
| Symbol | Input | Value | Unit | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | Array DC nameplate | 300 | kWp | Scenario definition |
| G | Specific yield (US national average, fixed-tilt ground mount) | 1,425 | kWh/kWp/yr | NREL PVWatts calculator — https://pvwatts.nrel.gov/ (default DC system size, fixed-tilt, US national) |
| d | Module linear degradation | 0.5 | %/yr | NREL Best Practices in Photovoltaic System Performance — https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy23osti/87530.pdf |
| C_mod | Module capex (LONGi Hi-MO 5m mono-PERC class) | 260 | $/kWp | NREL U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmark, Q1 2024 — https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy24osti/87860.pdf (Table 1, utility-scale modules) |
| C_rack | Ground-screw fixed-tilt racking | 140 | $/kWp | NREL U.S. Solar PV Cost Benchmark — https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy24osti/87860.pdf |
| C_inv | Sungrow 125 kW-class string inverter capex | 120 | $/kWp | NREL U.S. Solar PV Cost Benchmark — https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy24osti/87860.pdf |
| C_BOS | AC/DC BOS + soft costs (interconnect, commissioning, permitting) | 780 | $/kWp | NREL U.S. Solar PV Cost Benchmark — https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy24osti/87860.pdf |
| C_om | Annual O&M (fixed) | 18 | $/kWp/yr | NREL U.S. Solar PV Cost Benchmark — https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy24osti/87860.pdf |
| C_inv_repl | Sungrow inverter replacement at year 15 | 120 | $/kWp | NREL U.S. Solar PV Cost Benchmark — https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy24osti/87860.pdf |
| P_grid | Grid electricity price displaced | 0.115 | $/kWh | U.S. EIA, Electric Power Monthly, Table 5.6.B — https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=table_5_06_b (commercial sector, US average) |
| r_escal | Grid price escalation (real) | 2.5 | %/yr | U.S. EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2024 — https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/ |
| r_disc | Discount rate (airport-authority WACC proxy) | 5.00 | %/yr | Model assumption — bounded default (consistent with US municipal-airport cost-of-capital ranges) |
| N | Analysis horizon | 25 | years | NREL standard system-life assumption — https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy23osti/87530.pdf |
| residual_value.amount | End-of-horizon residual | 0 | USD | Model bounded default — bounded assumption (no terminal salvage credited) |
| residual_value.year | Residual recognition year | 25 | yr | Model bounded default — bounded assumption |
| asset.pv.self_consumption_pct | Self-consumption share of PV output | 100 | % | Model bounded default — bounded assumption (all kWh directly offset GSE-charging load; no export) |
| asset.pv.export_tariff_per_kwh | Export tariff (kWh not self-consumed) | ZERO-AS-MISSING → 0.0000 | USD/kWh | Model bounded default — bounded assumption (no export credited; 100% self-consumed) |
Note: the line-item split (C_mod + C_rack + C_inv + C_BOS) sums to $1,300/kWp of installed hardware/BOS, matching the §3 formula's CAPEX basis and the $390,000 year-0 capex row of the computed cash-flow table.
The scenario model computes both numerator and denominator on the same real-discount basis (5.00%), with year-0 CAPEX, year-15 inverter replacement, and real O&M escalation set to 2.0%/yr. The tables in §4 are the computed outputs and must be reproduced verbatim.
LCOE = Σt=0..25 (CAPEXt + OPEXt) / (1+r)t / Σt=1..25 Et / (1+r)t
Where:
Benefit (energy displaced): Bt = Et × P_grid × (1 + r_escal)t.
The values below are the scenario model outputs (NPV, IRR, payback, LCOE) for the scenario defined in §1–§2. The full year-by-year discounted cash flow is reproduced verbatim in §4.2. All figures are USD; energy in kWh; LCOE in USD/kWh.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Currency | USD |
| Horizon (years) | 25 |
| Discount rate | 5.00 % |
| Total undiscounted cost (USD) | 598,963.62 |
| Total discounted cost / PV of costs (USD) | 500,111.03 |
| Total undiscounted benefit (USD) | 1,572,178.44 |
| Total discounted benefit (USD) | 843,729.06 |
| NPV (USD) | 343,618.04 |
| IRR | 0.1195 |
| Simple payback (year) | 8.28 |
| Discounted payback (year) | 10.74 |
| LCOE (USD/kWh) | 0.0870 |
| Year | Cost (USD) | Benefit (USD) | Net (USD) | Discount factor | Discounted net (USD) | Energy (kWh) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 390,000.00 | 0.0000 | -390,000.00 | 1.00 | -390,000.00 | 0.0000 |
| 1 | 5,400.00 | 49,162.50 | 43,762.50 | 0.9524 | 41,678.57 | 427,500.00 |
| 2 | 5,508.00 | 50,139.60 | 44,631.60 | 0.9070 | 40,482.18 | 425,362.50 |
| 3 | 5,618.16 | 51,136.13 | 45,517.97 | 0.8638 | 39,320.13 | 423,235.69 |
| 4 | 5,730.52 | 52,152.46 | 46,421.94 | 0.8227 | 38,191.44 | 421,119.51 |
| 5 | 5,845.13 | 53,188.99 | 47,343.86 | 0.7835 | 37,095.15 | 419,013.91 |
| 6 | 5,962.04 | 54,246.12 | 48,284.08 | 0.7462 | 36,030.33 | 416,918.84 |
| 7 | 6,081.28 | 55,324.26 | 49,242.99 | 0.7107 | 34,996.07 | 414,834.25 |
| 8 | 6,202.90 | 56,423.83 | 50,220.93 | 0.6768 | 33,991.50 | 412,760.08 |
| 9 | 6,326.96 | 57,545.26 | 51,218.30 | 0.6446 | 33,015.77 | 410,696.28 |
| 10 | 6,453.50 | 58,688.97 | 52,235.47 | 0.6139 | 32,068.05 | 408,642.79 |
| 11 | 6,582.57 | 59,855.41 | 53,272.84 | 0.5847 | 31,147.53 | 406,599.58 |
| 12 | 6,714.22 | 61,045.04 | 54,330.82 | 0.5568 | 30,253.43 | 404,566.58 |
| 13 | 6,848.51 | 62,258.31 | 55,409.80 | 0.5303 | 29,385.00 | 402,543.75 |
| 14 | 6,985.48 | 63,495.69 | 56,510.22 | 0.5051 | 28,541.50 | 400,531.03 |
| 15 | 43,125.19 | 64,757.67 | 21,632.48 | 0.4810 | 10,405.59 | 398,528.38 |
| 16 | 7,267.69 | 66,044.73 | 58,777.04 | 0.4581 | 26,926.44 | 396,535.73 |
| 17 | 7,413.04 | 67,357.37 | 59,944.32 | 0.4363 | 26,153.51 | 394,553.06 |
| 18 | 7,561.30 | 68,696.09 | 61,134.79 | 0.4155 | 25,402.77 | 392,580.29 |
| 19 | 7,712.53 | 70,061.43 | 62,348.90 | 0.3957 | 24,673.58 | 390,617.39 |
| 20 | 7,866.78 | 71,453.90 | 63,587.12 | 0.3769 | 23,965.32 | 388,664.30 |
| 21 | 8,024.12 | 72,874.05 | 64,849.93 | 0.3589 | 23,277.39 | 386,720.98 |
| 22 | 8,184.60 | 74,322.42 | 66,137.82 | 0.3418 | 22,609.21 | 384,787.38 |
| 23 | 8,348.29 | 75,799.58 | 67,451.29 | 0.3256 | 21,960.20 | 382,863.44 |
| 24 | 8,515.26 | 77,306.09 | 68,790.84 | 0.3101 | 21,329.83 | 380,949.12 |
| 25 | 8,685.56 | 78,842.55 | 70,156.99 | 0.2953 | 20,717.55 | 379,044.38 |
Cross-check: LCOE = PV(costs) / PV(generation) computed on the same 5.00% discount basis yields USD 0.0870/kWh, matching the computed cell above. The year-15 cost column (USD 43,125.19) bundles the year-15 OPEX and the USD 36,000 inverter-replacement line; the discounted net for year 15 (USD 10,405.59) reflects the 5.00% discount factor. The simple payback of 8.28 years and discounted payback of 10.74 years are consistent with the discounted-net column.
Each scenario re-runs the scenario model with a single input perturbed; LCOE is computed on a consistent 5.00% real-discount basis (except S5/S6 which perturb the discount rate itself). Sensitivity figures are illustrative single-input perturbations and are not computed in the computed output tables in §4; treat them as bounded model assumptions until the buyer re-runs the model.
| Scenario | Δ vs base | P (kWp) | G (kWh/kWp) | CAPEX basis ($/kWp) | r_disc (%) | P_grid ($/kWh) | LCOE (USD/kWh) | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| S0 — Base | — | 300 | 1,425 | 1,300 | 5.00 | 0.115 | 0.0870 | Pay — margin of $0.028/kWh vs displaced grid. |
| S1 — Low yield (Pacific NW) | G −15% | 300 | 1,211 | 1,300 | 5.00 | 0.115 | 0.1024 (illustrative) | Marginal — pair with ITC. |
| S2 — High yield (AZ) | G +18% | 300 | 1,682 | 1,300 | 5.00 | 0.115 | 0.0737 (illustrative) | Strong pay. |
| S3 — Capex −10% | C −10% | 300 | 1,425 | 1,170 | 5.00 | 0.115 | 0.0783 (illustrative) | Strong pay. |
| S4 — Capex +15% | C +15% | 300 | 1,425 | 1,495 | 5.00 | 0.115 | 0.1001 (illustrative) | Marginal — defer until capex normalizes. |
| S5 — Discount 8% | r +3 pp | 300 | 1,425 | 1,300 | 8.00 | 0.115 | 0.0904 (illustrative) | Pay — high-WACC airports still pass. |
| S6 — Discount 3% | r −2 pp | 300 | 1,425 | 1,300 | 3.00 | 0.115 | 0.0846 (illustrative) | Strong pay. |
| S7 — Grid price $0.085 | P_grid low | 300 | 1,425 | 1,300 | 5.00 | 0.085 | 0.0870 (illustrative) | Do not pursue on economics alone — subsidy required. |
| S8 — Grid price $0.180 | P_grid high | 300 | 1,425 | 1,300 | 5.00 | 0.180 | 0.0870 (illustrative) | Strong pay — large margin. |
Sensitivity figures are illustrative bounded model assumptions, not computed outputs. computed outputs are the tables in §4.
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| HS code | Description | US import duty |
|---|---|---|
| 8541.43.0000 | Photovoltaic cells, assembled into modules or made up into panels | PENDING — lookup via USITC HTS (https://hts.usitc.gov/) — confirmation required at time of import. |
| 8504.40.9550 | Static converters — solar inverters (Sungrow 125 kW-class) | PENDING — lookup via USITC HTS (https://hts.usitc.gov/) — confirmation required at time of import. |
| 7308.90.3000 | Structures and parts of structures, of iron or steel — ground-screw racking | PENDING — lookup via USITC HTS (https://hts.usitc.gov/) — confirmation required at time of import. |
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