Energy self-sufficient households with photovoltaics and electric vehicles are feasible in temperate climate

CHF/m3 instead of 600 CHF/m3 is based on a business-as-usual scenario by Marchenko and Solomin (71). A 50% higher PV cost only lets costs increase by 3.4–4.4% in SFB and 4.9–6.7% in MFB cases. In contrast, the discount rate has an effect ranging from –5.3% to +16.6% across all cases when varied from 0% to 6% (from its 4% base case value, adjustments 4 and 8 in the figure). We do not investigate lower than base case costs for the storage and PV components as the base case already assumes cost reductions from the current cost of these components. However, we investigate heat pumps at two thirds of the base case cost, finding that they would reduce overall costs by about 10%. Taken together, the technical and cost sensitivity analyses paint a clear picture. Technical feasibility, i.e. the net energy balance, is most affected by the ability to collect incoming sunlight as electricity, which in turn is influenced by available area and PV system performance. In contrast, economic feasibility, i.e. total system cost, is most affected by the cost of the various storage components of the system. Fig 9. Variability of generation and net electricity balance the years 2000 to 2015 based on data for Worb, Bern, for the SNPU case a. Daily photovoltaic electricity generation. b. Seven-daily average net electricity balance. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227368.g009 Energy self-sufficient households with photovoltaics and electric vehicles are feasible in temperate climate PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227368 March 4, 2020 18 / 25