7.8 Summary and Final Tasks

Summary

Good progress, class! We have now completed our three-lesson arc through Lesson 5: economic analysis, Lesson 6: solar utility for the client and locale, and finally Lesson 7: financial life cycle cost analysis.

In Lesson 7, we read about and discussed ways to deliver metrics to our clients that would be useful for financial assessment and project comparison. We called the overall process Life Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA), dealing with concepts of financial paybacks on investment, solar savings, time value of money for long periods of evaluation, and levelized costs of energy. We introduced solar-specific terms such as the annual Solar Fraction (F), the Solar Savings (SS), and the Life Cycle Savings (LCS).

We discovered that financial analysis can be as direct as using a spreadsheet and some basic assumptions to assess financial cash flows and energy flows, or it can be a detailed simulation using meteorological data. We used discrete annualized methods of analysis common to project management in industry.

Coming up in the next three lessons, we will add to that strategy, and you will keep developing your arguments by building from sources found on the web (or from clients).

Design is pattern with a purpose.

Whereas art and science provide mechanisms to ultimately open windows into apparent patterns about us, design and engineering are purposeful approaches to establish systems that fit the revealed pattern. [Brownson, SECS, Ch. 16]