Promotion of solar energy as a new promising renewable energy source for Smart City projects in Thailand plays an important role in driving the economy, society and the environment. A novel conceptual framework with different solar radiation indexes was developed to investigate and evaluate the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) energy production by comparing predicted and actual results for energy acquired from the reference project. The trend of potential energy production was predicted from solar radiation data as the basis for further calculations to evaluate PV system efficiency through a techno-economic analysis of project development. A mathematical model was developed to predict the obtained electrical energy by considering the suitable location-specific solar radiation indexes including direct normal radiation, All-Sky insolation incident on a horizontal surface, direct normal irradiation and global horizontal irradiance. The developed model was tested with three existing Smart City projects at various locations in Thailand. The All-Sky index was determined as the most suitable option to evaluate new PV development projects. Highest energy production from the PV projects occurred in March and April. Energy production efficiencies of the PV systems were estimated in the range of 3.97–4.32 kWh/kW_p. The techno-economic analysis suggested that the PV project had an internal rate of return of 14.30–15.75% and payback period of 6.18–6.74 years. The proposed conceptual framework was a promising tool for decision-making regarding Smart City PV projects.

推广太阳能作为泰国智慧城市项目的一种新的有前途的可再生能源，在推动经济，社会和环境方面发挥着重要作用。通过比较从参考项目获得的能源的预测结果和实际结果，开发了一个具有不同太阳辐射指数的新颖概念框架，以研究和评估光伏（PV）能源生产的效率。通过太阳辐射数据预测了潜在能源生产的趋势，以此作为通过对项目开发的技术经济分析来进一步评估光伏系统效率的基础。通过考虑合适的特定于位置的太阳辐射指数（包括直接法向辐射），开发了数学模型来预测获得的电能，全天空日照入射在水平表面上，直接法向辐射和整体水平辐照度。所开发的模型已经在泰国不同地点的三个现有的智慧城市项目中进行了测试。全天候指数被确定为评估新的光伏开发项目的最合适选择。光伏项目最高的能源生产发生在3月和4月。光伏系统的能源生产效率估计在3.97–4.32 kWh / kW的范围内_p。技术经济分析表明，光伏项目的内部收益率为14.30-15.75％，投资回收期为6.18-6.74年。拟议的概念框架是有关智慧城市光伏项目决策的有前途的工具。