**1. Introduction**

The rapid economic and population development causes that the demand for electricity in the world is growing year by year [1]. The International Energy Agency (IEA) provides forecasts in which the increase in electricity demand is estimated at 30% in 2040 compared to the base year 2016 [2]. At the same time, the challenges of climate change and global warming are led to the energy sector transformation. There is a large shift from fossil fuelbased systems to clean technologies and an economy based on sustainable resources [3,4]. Even though more and more countries in the world are promoting policies based mainly on the use of sustainable energy sources as factors mitigating climate change, ensuring energy security and sustainable economic development [5–8], the cost of producing electricity from renewable sources is still higher than from fossil fuels [9,10]. As a result, it is consumers who pay the highest price for green electricity [11]. There are more and more proposals on the market aimed at better management of energy and lowering its prices—especially the one from renewable sources, these include, among others, initiatives such as the creation of energy cooperatives on the capacity market, which would use the potential of renewable energy sources in rural areas [12], the idea of unlimited use of the low voltage grid by electricity consumers, producers prosumers [13], energy storage systems from renewable energy sources [14,15] or even properly designed subsidy support systems for RES [16]. At the same time, solar (as well as wind) technologies are largely favored among other technologies that use renewable energy sources, which significantly affects the development

**Citation:** Kaczmarzewski, S.; Matuszewska, D.; Sołtysik, M. Analysis of Selected Service Industries in Terms of the Use of Photovoltaics before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic. *Energies* **2022**, *15*, 188. https://doi.org/10.3390/ en15010188

Academic Editor: Ignacio Mauleón

Received: 22 November 2021 Accepted: 24 December 2021 Published: 28 December 2021

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**Copyright:** © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

of installations supplied from these sources [17,18]. The use of solar technologies for the production of electricity is associated with their undoubted advantages, including scalability, no need for heavy support infrastructure and availability in remote locations, etc. [19]. It is also important that these systems do not have any moving parts, they do not require significant maintenance with relatively long service lives and, during use, do not pollute the air or water [20,21]. Research shows that among individual customers, solar energy is valued higher than electricity generated from other sources [22], while the very idea of self-sufficiency and the possibility of active participation in the energy transformation positively influences investments in solar technologies [23,24]. Taking into account the growing prices of electricity for end-users, with the simultaneous decline in the prices of photovoltaic systems, a significant increase in interest in this type of technology is observed [25]. Despite these undoubted advantages of solar technologies and strong pressure from the European Union to eliminate units fired by coal and switch to clean, renewable sources [26,27], it should be realized that solar technologies are sensitive not only to the solar radiation level but also to average air temperatures, seasonal and weather changes [28]. These factors can significantly affect the power grids [29]. With the observed significant increase in installed solar power not only in Europe but also in the world [30,31], there is more and more discussion about the problems (such as the duck curve) that accompany this increase [32,33]. The imbalance between the intermittent supply, sensitivity to weather conditions and the volatile profile of demand for electricity begins to raise serious concerns about the load and, consequently, the reliability of the power grid [34]. There was the idea of using traditional backup generators (powered by fossil fuels) to prevent the threat of imbalance risks, but it runs counter to the goal of a clean energy transition and has been criticized for polluting the environment [35]. Alternatively, attention is paid to the energy demand response (DR) as a way of balancing the power grid [36,37] or increasing the auto-consumption ratio, which would largely (or fully) cover the demand, depending on the PV load and production level [38]. The COVID pandemic also had a significant impact on the entire energy industry [39]—including the PV industry, which was not resistant to these perturbations and the entire industrial chain felt the effects of the pandemic, which resulted in a short-term increase in production costs [40]. At the same time, Zhang H. et al. [41] show that the risk of slowdown in solar PV deployment due to COVID-19 can be mitigated through comprehensive incentive strategies.

As shown in the literature, there are many analyses of these problems related to PV installations, however, the authors see a large gap regarding the lack of analyses of selected segments in terms of the use of photovoltaics. There are no studies that clearly show that the demand profile for electricity in the selected segment corresponds to the production from PV installations, thus making the self-consumption rate very high. There are no indications of this type of behavior in research papers, not to mention the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these phenomena. As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the literature can find the amount of new PV capacity installed in individual segments and forecasts regarding their growth, however, the authors see a lack of in-depth analyses of individual segments. For this reason, the authors decided to analyze selected service industries for their use before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Figure 1 shows shares of solar PV net capacity additions by application segment in 2013–2022 (however, until May 2021, this estimate is based on the reported data, and after May 2021 on the forecast). IEA estimated that global solar PV capacity additions are expected to reach nearly 117 GW in 2021 in the main case. In the years 2020–2022, an increase in new installed capacity is expected in all application segments, with the largest share of new installed capacity still being observed for utility-scale projects [42]. Interestingly, comparing this data with [43], where it was stated that in 2020 138 gigawatts of new PV capacity was installed, it can be assumed that these values are underestimated.

**Figure 1.** Shares of PV net capacity additions by application segment, 2013–2022. Based on [38].

**Figure 2.** Average global annual capacity additions in main and accelerated cases, 2023–2025. Based on [38].

Figure 2 shows the average global annual capacity additions in main and accelerated cases, 2023-2025. Continued political support and cost reduction are projected to drive further solar expansion beyond 2022. The distributed solar segment is expected to grow in 2023–2025 as a result of the global economic recovery, which will positively impact the faster adoption of commercial and residential systems. The potential for total PV in the accelerated case compared with the main case is significantly higher—it is estimated that in the years 2023–2025 the annual capacity increase may reach 165 GW on average [42]. There are many studies on the impact of self-consumption from PV installations in the literature. McKenna et al. [44] analyzed the self-consumption of photovoltaic systems in a smart grid demonstration project in the residential sector in the United Kingdom. Tongsopit S. et al. [38] analyzed the feasibility of self-consumption chemists for four customer groups from an economic point of view in Thailand. Mateo C. et al. [45] analyzed the impact of shaping the consumption policy on the distribution networks with which the

prosumers are connected. Pedrero J. et al. [46] analyzed the economics of self-consumption from PV installations for an industrial park and showed that greater economic benefits come from shared self-consumption. Fachrizal R. and Munkhammar J. [47] reported an increase in self-consumption from PV systems installed in apartment buildings thanks to the use of an intelligent charging system for electric vehicles.

As shown in Figures 1 and 2 in the literature, there are estimates of the increase in installed power in given application segments, however, there are no in-depth analyses of PV installations within a given sector, for example, in which order and in which industries it is best to invest in PV systems (e.g., whether it is better to invest in PV first in the hotel industry, or maybe in the catering industry, etc.) so that the profits and the selfconsumption rate are as high as possible. From the point of view of the policy of supporting PV installations, as well as business decisions for investors, this gap seems to be a significant problem, so far not noticeable in research. The novelty of this publication is a proposed comparative methodology of various segments in the service industry in terms of the use of photovoltaics for the production of electricity for own use. In addition, it was analyzed how these factors are changing due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 describes research objects, data sources and scope of work; Section 3 provides the rationale for the selected research methodology along with its description; Section 4 describes the results of the analyses and discussion and finally, the conclusions can be found in Section 5.
