Attractiveness of Photovoltaic Prosumerism in the European Electricity Market

The current energy crisis calls for a rapid transition to renewables. Solar photovoltaics (PV) is the key component of the future energy system and a majority of PV systems are installed on rooftops in Europe. This article studies the business case of prosumers, i.e., consumers who produce part or all of their electricity with PV. The levelized cost of PV electricity is compared with the average value of PV electricity for the prosumers in residential, commercial, and industrial installations in Finland, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain with different self-consumption (SC) and weighted average cost of capital rates. Prosumer business cases are positive in every studied market segment and country, especially for industrial PV systems with 100% SC where a payback time of less than 4 years can be achieved. The sensitivity of payback time on key input parameters is also studied. Reasonable cost of capital and adequate SC of PV generation remain the key elements for attractive prosumerism.