Sustainability and competitiveness: Economic analysis of a photovoltaic plant with storage in an Italian textile company

Sustainability, green innovation and business competitiveness are not opposing concepts, but complementary and synergistic forces contributing to the overall enrichment of companies. As high energy costs can undermine profitability, models for energy self-sufficiency are becoming increasingly desirable. The present work aimed at evaluating the financial viability of investing in a photovoltaic system, both with and without a storage battery, using the discounted cash flow method across various market and policy scenarios. The results showed that profitability was strongly influenced by the avoided cost of energy in the bill and the percentage of self-consumed energy, especially in the absence of favorable incentive decrees. Use of a battery did not consistently result in higher profitability, as this depended on the relative increase in self-consumed energy. Photovoltaic systems integrated with storage represent a green innovation, and the present work identified the conditions under which such investments are profitable, yielding positive outcomes for companies’ financial performance and green reputations, aligned with sustainable development.