Faucet Parity

	kWh/kWp	Euro/kWp	Interest Rate	Loan Term	DR	LCOE	NG Price	EF Ratio
Austria	900	2200	6	10	6	0.21	0.08	2.7
Belgium	850	2400	6	10	6	0.25	0.07	3.4
Denmark	800*	2400	6	10	6	0.26	0.11	2.3
France	1000	2400*	6	10	6	0.21	0.07	2.9
Germany	900	1500	3	10	4.5	0.10	0.07	1.4
Greece	1300	2600*	10	10	10	0.24	0.08	3.0
Ireland	750	2600*	8	10	8	0.36	0.07	5.1
Italy	1200	2200*	6	10	6	0.15	0.09	1.6
Luxembourg	1000*	2600*	6	10	6	0.22	0.07	3.2
Netherlands	800	1900	6	10	6	0.21	0.07	3.0
Portugal	1350	2200*	8	10	8	0.17	0.08	2.0
Spain	1300	2200*	8	10	8	0.18	0.07	2.4
Sweden	800	2100*	6	10	6	0.23	0.20	1.1
U.K.	850	1900	6	10	6	0.20	0.06	3.3

Here's a rough sketch of how the photoelectric LCOEs stack up between European countries. The Interest rates and Discount rates are very rough estimates that I hope are on the conservative side. All the remaining values are either sourced or educated guesses.

On the far right of the table there's a column labeled EF Ratio - this is the electricity to fuel price ratio. In a previous post I compared the EF ratio of retail electricity in Europe vs. natural gas prices - this table is a photoelectric version of that table comparing the levelized cost of photoelectricity to the retail price of natural gas.

The EF Ratio provides a guideline of what a heat pump's Coefficient of Performance (COP) would need to be to economically justify using photoelectricity to displace natural gas. Average COPs range from 2 to 3 so this puts most of these countries in the table at or near Faucet Parity - i.e. It would be cheaper to make hot water with photoelectricity and a heat pump than with natural gas.