Unit economics · Modelled estimate

What a kilowatt-hour costs a business in Iraq

With 100.0% of the population on the grid and frequent outages, the real alternative is not the grid tariff but a diesel generator. Against diesel at 0.350 USD per kWh, solar with three days of storage brings the cost of a consumed kilowatt-hour down to 0.043.

Cost per kWh

Unreliable

Diesel generator 0.350

Solar + three-day battery 0.186

The panels themselves 0.013

0.164 USD per kWh cheaper than running the generator, a 47% lower cost per consumed kilowatt-hour.

Grid reliability: Unreliable
Population with grid access: 100.0%
Installation labour cost: 0.15 × Belgium
Solar yield: 1,750 kWh/kWp

Net saving over 25 years

449USD per kWp

Solar only, after deducting the installation. A 500 kWp roof: about 224,500 USD over the lifetime.

Measured against the grid tariff instead

At 0.045 USD per kWh the tariff in Iraq is among the lowest in the world. Solar does beat it — 0.033 per consumed kWh — but the saving is small and payback runs past 10 years. The case here rests on the generator, not on the tariff.

How long until it pays for itself

Against the diesel generator

Solar + three-day battery vs diesel 7.4years Full autonomy, generator on standby

Solar only Over 10 years The tariff is too low for the investment to pay back on its own.

Solar + day-night battery Over 10 years The tariff is too low for the investment to pay back on its own.

Households, for reference

Grid: 0.015
Solar + battery: 0.069

Why diesel is the reference here

A business only compares with the grid tariff if the grid actually delivers. We classify reliability per country from grid access and outage data; where it is weak, the generator is what solar replaces. Diesel is taken at 0.350 USD per kWh all-in, fuel plus maintenance.

What is not included

No discounting, maintenance, financing, subsidies, import duties or price rises. Peak shaving and arbitrage are left out until we hold the tariff data per country — so a real case is usually better than this, not worse.

These are modelled averages for the country, meant for comparing markets. Your own case runs on your roof, your load profile and your tariff — the configurator computes it with the rules that apply here.

Download these figures (JSON)

How each figure is calculated

Figure	Unit	Definition
Installation labour cost	×	Cost of installation labour relative to Belgium (1.0). Eurostat construction labour cost for Europe, elsewhere derived from GDP per capita. Hardware is priced the same worldwide; only the labour part is scaled.
Grid access	%	Share of the population with an electricity connection (World Bank, most recent year).
Grid reliability		1 = reliable (rare outages), 2 = moderate (occasional outages or regional load shedding), 3 = unreliable (frequent outages or structural load shedding). The tier decides what solar is compared against: the grid tariff, a diesel generator, or both.
Grid price	USD/kWh	All-in retail price of a kilowatt-hour taken from the grid, the baseline every other figure is measured against.
Solar cost over 25 years	USD/kWh	Installation cost divided by everything the panels produce over 25 years, with output declining to 85 percent. The cost of the panels themselves, not of a consumed kilowatt-hour.
Cost per kWh with solar	USD/kWh	What a consumed kilowatt-hour costs with solar and no battery: grid purchase for the uncovered hours, plus the installation written off, minus the revenue on exported power.
Cost per kWh with solar and battery	USD/kWh	The same calculation with a battery that carries one night, written off over 15 years.
Cost per kWh against diesel	USD/kWh	Cost of a consumed kilowatt-hour where the alternative is a generator: solar with three days of storage, with the generator covering what is left.
Net saving over 25 years	USD/kWp	What one kWp of solar saves over 25 years after deducting the installation: self-consumption at the retail price plus exports at a quarter of it.
Payback, solar only	years	Years until the annual saving has paid back the installation, without discounting. Longer than ten years is reported as "over ten years": at that horizon the assumptions matter more than the outcome.
Payback, solar and battery	years	The same, for solar plus a battery that carries one night.
Payback, solar and three-day battery	years	The same, for solar plus three days of storage measured against the grid tariff. Three days of storage buys autonomy; against a cheap tariff it rarely pays for itself.
Payback against diesel	years	Years until solar with three days of storage has paid for itself against the fuel and maintenance of a generator.
Annual saving	USD/kWp/year	What one kWp of solar saves in a year: self-consumption at the retail price plus exports at a quarter of it.

Solar autonomy scorecard · Modelled estimate

Can a business in Iraq run on solar and a battery?

With PV sized at 120% of annual consumption, a battery that carries one night covers 90% of the demand in Iraq; a battery holding three days of consumption lifts that to 96%.

Generation is moderately seasonal: the strongest month yields 2.1× the weakest.

In the three leanest months 4.0% of the annual consumption stays uncovered — a gap a generator or a modest grid connection can fill.

Businesses pay on average 0.045 USD per kWh, households 0.015 USD per kWh.

Electricity price, businesses: 0.045USD/kWh
Electricity price, households: 0.015USD/kWh
PV yield: 1,750kWh/kWp
Seasonal spread: 2.1×strongest ÷ weakest month
Three-day battery: 12.0kWh/kWp
Lean-season deficit: 4.0%of annual consumption

Two battery scenarios

Both with PV sized at 120% of annual consumption.

Day-night battery

Stores the daytime surplus for the following night.

Self-sufficiency: 90%
Self-consumption: 75%
Battery size: 2.2 kWh/kWp

Three-day battery

Holds three full days of consumption, to ride through overcast spells.

Self-sufficiency: 96%
Self-consumption: 80%
Battery size: 12.0 kWh/kWp

Generation and demand through the year

Share of the annual total per month. Modelled from latitude and climate class, not measured.

PV yield Consumption

Weakest month: 4.7%
Strongest month: 10.0%
Seasonal spread: 2.1×
Consumption profile: summer peak (cooling)
Climate class: desert

PV yield / Consumption — Iraq

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
PV yield (%)	5.0	8.0	9.3	9.9	10.0	10.0	10.0	10.0	9.6	8.3	5.2	4.7
Consumption (%)	6.9	6.9	7.3	8.1	8.9	9.8	10.2	10.2	9.4	8.1	7.3	6.9

A lean season to cover

In the three leanest months 4.0% of the annual consumption stays uncovered — a gap a generator or a modest grid connection can fill.

Every modelled value for Iraq

The same fields as the downloadable dataset, with their definition.

Variable	Value	Definition
Continent`continent`	Asia	Continent the country belongs to.
Country`country`	Iraq	Country name in English.
Region`region`	—	Climate region within the country; empty when the country is modelled as one region.
Electricity price, households`price_households_usd_mwh`	0.015 USD/kWh USD/MWh	Average all-in retail price for households, national average. Static average, not a dynamic or market price.
Electricity price, businesses`price_businesses_usd_mwh`	0.045 USD/kWh USD/MWh	Average all-in retail price for businesses, national average. Empty where the source publishes no business price.
PV yield`pv_yield_kwh_kwp`	1,750 kWh/kWp/year	Estimated annual yield of a well-oriented PV system per installed kWp, rounded to the nearest fifty.
Weakest month share`weakest_month_share_pct`	4.7%	Share of the annual yield produced in the weakest of the twelve months (the wet season in monsoon climates, winter elsewhere). A perfectly flat year gives one twelfth per month.
Strongest month share`strongest_month_share_pct`	10%	Share of the annual yield produced in the strongest of the twelve months.
Seasonal spread`seasonal_spread`	2.1×	Strongest month divided by weakest month. Close to one means flat generation all year; above ten means strongly seasonal.
Self-consumption, day-night battery`self_consumption_daynight_pct`	75%	Share of the PV generation that is used on site with a battery sized to carry one night. Equals self-sufficiency divided by the oversizing factor.
Self-sufficiency, day-night battery`self_sufficiency_daynight_pct`	90%	Share of the annual consumption covered by PV plus a battery sized to carry one night. Never above one hundred percent.
Battery size, day-night`battery_daynight_kwh_kwp`	2.2 kWh/kWp	Battery capacity needed to carry the night-time share of one day of consumption, per kWp of PV.
Self-consumption, three-day battery`self_consumption_3day_pct`	80%	Share of the PV generation that is used on site with a battery holding three days of consumption.
Self-sufficiency, three-day battery`self_sufficiency_3day_pct`	96%	Share of the annual consumption covered by PV plus a battery holding three days of consumption. This is the figure the energy-island assessment is based on.
Battery size, three-day`battery_3day_kwh_kwp`	12 kWh/kWp	Battery capacity equal to three days of consumption, per kWp of PV.
Consumption profile`consumption_profile`	summer peak (cooling)	Assumed seasonal shape of demand for the climate: winter peak (heating), summer peak (cooling), double peak or near-flat.
Lean-season deficit`winter_deficit_pct`	4%	Demand that stays unmet during the three consecutive lowest-yield months, despite the three-day battery, as a share of annual consumption. It is what remains for the grid, a backup generator or seasonal storage.
Lean-season deficit, absolute`winter_deficit_kwh_kwp`	57.7 kWh/kWp	The same deficit expressed in kWh per kWp of PV.
Latitude`latitude`	32 °	Representative latitude used by the astronomical yield model; negative is the southern hemisphere.
Climate class`climate`	desert	Climate class that sets the monthly cloud pattern, day-to-day variability and consumption profile.
Monthly yield shares`monthly_yield_share_pct`	5.0 · 8.0 · 9.3 · 9.9 · 10.0 · 10.0 · 10.0 · 10.0 · 9.6 · 8.3 · 5.2 · 4.7	Twelve values, January to December: share of the annual PV yield per month. Modelled from latitude and climate class, not measured.
Monthly consumption shares`monthly_consumption_share_pct`	6.9 · 6.9 · 7.3 · 8.1 · 8.9 · 9.8 · 10.2 · 10.2 · 9.4 · 8.1 · 7.3 · 6.9	Twelve values, January to December: assumed share of the annual consumption per month.

Download this scorecard as JSON

How the model works

Monthly PV yield comes from an astronomical model (latitude, declination, tilt) multiplied by a climate pattern for cloud and rain. Day-to-day variability follows a gamma distribution per climate; multi-day coverage is the sum of independent days. Seasonal consumption is set per climate: a winter peak for heating, a summer peak for cooling, a double peak in Mediterranean climates.

Fixed assumptions

PV sized at 120% of annual consumption; 55% of consumption falls outside direct sun hours; battery round-trip efficiency 92%.

What it is not

An analytical approximation, not an hourly simulation of your site. Prices are static national averages, not dynamic or market prices. The deficit is not a storage recommendation: it quantifies what remains for grid, backup or seasonal storage.

Sources

Electricity prices: national averages, Q2 2026.
PV yield: Estimates in line with Global Solar Atlas (World Bank / Solargis), rounded to the nearest 50 kWh/kWp.
Licence: CC BY 4.0.
Dataset updated 2026-09-22

From country average to your own roof

The configurator is not live for Iraq yet. See where it runs today, or ask us to model your site.

See where the configurator is live Talk to an engineer

Iraq — solar autonomy in short

Can a business in Iraq go off-grid with solar and a battery?

With PV sized at 120% of annual consumption, a battery that carries one night covers 90% of the demand in Iraq; a battery holding three days of consumption lifts that to 96%. In the three leanest months 4.0% of the annual consumption stays uncovered — a gap a generator or a modest grid connection can fill.

How large a battery does solar autonomy take in Iraq?

Per kWp of PV, carrying one night takes about 2.2 kWh of battery and holding three days of consumption about 12.0 kWh. With the three-day battery, self-sufficiency reaches 96%.

How much does solar generation in Iraq vary between seasons?

A well-oriented system yields about 1,750 kWh per kWp a year. The strongest month produces 2.1× the weakest: 10.0% against 4.7% of the annual yield.

What does electricity cost in Iraq?

Businesses pay on average 0.045 USD per kWh, households 0.015 USD per kWh.

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