Title: Efficiency assessment of photovoltaic power stations using two-stage data envelopment analysis: a case study in Inner Mongolia, China

Authors: Yunna Wu; Xiaokun Sun; Chuanbo Xu; Xinli Xiao; Zhiming Lu

Addresses: School of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of New Energy and Low-Carbon Development, North China Electric Power University, Changping, Beijing 102206, China ' School of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of New Energy and Low-Carbon Development, North China Electric Power University, Changping, Beijing 102206, China ' School of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of New Energy and Low-Carbon Development, North China Electric Power University, Changping, Beijing 102206, China ' School of Economics and Management, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of New Energy and Low-Carbon Development, North China Electric Power University, Changping, Beijing 102206, China ' China Gezhouba Group, No. 3 Engineering Co., Ltd, Xi'an 710077, China

Abstract: The photovoltaic (PV) power generation industry has developed rapidly in China in recent years. However, given the rare research on the efficiency of China's photovoltaic power stations (PVPS), this paper takes 33 PVPS in Inner Mongolia as samples, and uses a two-stage model to analyse their power generation efficiency. In the first stage, the efficiency scores of PVPS are calculated by data envelopment analysis method, and the robustness of the efficiency scores is verified by sensitivity analysis. In the second stage, the relationship between the efficiency scores and the environment variables is studied using the Tobit regression. The results show that the age, solar energy curtailment rate, environmental temperature, atmospheric dust fall and ownership of PVPS have influence on productive efficiency in varying degrees. The results can help the stakeholders in the PV power generation industry to optimise operational strategies, make related operational policies and provide a useful dataset for comparative studies.

Keywords: PVPS; photovoltaic power stations; efficiency; data envelopment analysis; Tobit regression.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTPM.2019.101174

International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, 2019 Vol.19 No.3, pp.289 - 310

Received: 05 Jan 2018
Accepted: 09 Apr 2018
Published online: 26 Jul 2019 *

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