Renewable energies, including photovoltaic energy, are attracting widespread
international attention, in reaction to worsening environmental problems and the
diminishing long-term sustainability of fossil fuel energies. In this work, the potential
benefits of installing photovoltaic panels on several buildings at the Spanish
Naval Military School (Escuela Naval Militar, ENM) of Mar ın are considered. The
two salient advantages are significant economic savings from the production and
the sale of electricity to the Spanish Electricity Network and achieving selfsufficiency
in electricity requirements. Consequently, the main objective of this
work is to estimate the energy potential of photovoltaic installations on the roofs of
the ENM buildings. This is the first time that a project of this nature and size is presented
to the Spanish Navy. To that end, a three-dimensional geographic analysis
of the buildings is performed using three freeware software: Trimble SketchUp,
Skelion, and Photovoltaic Geographical Information System. An economic study is
also conducted to determine the feasibility of the installations, by estimating the
Net Present Value of the photovoltaic installation and the Internal Rate of Return
associated with the project. Subsequently, a sensitivity analysis that considers the
most important parameters for the calculation of the amortization period is reported.
The results show that the installation could fulfill the ENM electrical demands and
could, in addition, generate significant economic benefits. The conclusions end with
a recommendation to consider the merits of the proposed solution.
