Gill, Jatinderjit KaurManpreet Kaur2019-07-222019-07-222019http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810115963The present study entitled ‘An analytical study of residential solar photovoltaic system in Punjab’ was undertaken with the objectives: to study the socio-economic profile of the users of photovoltaic system for domestic purpose; to study the awareness, factors and the problems associated with use of solar photovoltaic system; to examine the economic viability of the photovoltaic system for domestic purpose. Proportionate random sampling technique was used to select 300 families from five major cities of Punjab (27 families from Jalandhar, 47 families from Patiala, 13 families from Mohali, 200 families from Ludhiana and 13 families from Amritsar) who were using photovoltaic systems at their residence at least from last one year. The data pertaining to awareness, factors, problems and the economic viability of the photovoltaic system used for domestic purpose was collected with the help of specially structured interview schedule. The Socioeconomic status scale developed by Meenakshi (2010) was used to study socio-economic profile of respondents. The results revealed that the users of domestic solar photovoltaic system in Punjab were of above average to high socio-economic status in terms of their family education, income, occupation, property, wealth and social status. They were aware of life span, cost, capacity, area required, working principle, net metering etc. of solar photovoltaic system. The use of photovoltaic system at domestic level was found to be increasing steadily over the period. A very high majority (91.00 %) of users preferred ongrid as compared to off-grid (9.00%). Respondents were satisfied with the amount of electricity produced and considered it as money saver, eco friendly, safe to use, require no technical knowledge, healthy and reduce power consumption. It was found to conserve energy, pollution free, safe and convenient to use, needed no protection from water and had low maintenance cost. The respondents differed significantly in their opinion on major constraints of solar photovoltaic system related to availability, economic, construction, technical and operational problems. They found economic problems such as the system being expensive coupled with lack of appropriate incentives leading to the problem of lack of capital to meet the high initial cost and construction problems like lack of technical knowledge, high cost of construction and need of space and surface area were major constrains to purchase solar photovoltaic system. Majority of the respondents were highly satisfied with the working, maintenance, installation and type of material of solar photovoltaic system. The cost also didn’t matter for most of the respondents in the view of the end benefits. The socio-economic status of respondents was found to be positively and significantly correlated with their overall awareness of solar photovoltaic system. The per kilowatt cost of solar photovoltaic system reduce with the increase in the total capacity of the system. The cost of solar photovoltaic system also reduced over the period and still reducing. The initial rate of return and payback period of solar photovoltaic system varied from 16% to 20% and between 5-8 years which indicated that the users of domestic solar photovoltaic system recovered their initial investment within the time period of five to eight years of its installation in terms of its saving on electricity bill and after that the saving on electricity bill till twenty five years of its life, contributed as saving. The benefit cost ratio of solar photovoltaic system greater than one indicated the usefulness of the investment on domestic solar photovoltaic system. The study proved the installation of solar photovoltaic system as economically viable and profitable in spite of its high initial cost.enThesis