Photovoltaic systems now have energy pay back times as low as 1.7 years!

[Gold Metal Flake]

http://www.ecn.nl/en/news/newsletter/first-quarter-2006/photovoltaic-systems-now-have-energy-pay-back-times-as-low-as-17-years/

Photovoltaic module production has shown a tremendous increase, with shipments of PV modules accelerating from approx. 80 MWp in 1995 to approx. 1700 MWp in 2005. With such impressive growth figure, and in view of the very large potential of photovoltaics as a renewable energy source, an analysis of present and future environmental performances of photovoltaic systems becomes increasingly important. This is typically carried out using the method of Life Cycle Assessment* (LCA).

LCA studies on PV have been published but these were mainly based on PV technologies from the late '80s. Since then, the PV industry has implemented many innovations in the field of solar cell and module technology. An update was therefore urgently needed. The Copernicus Institute (University of Utrecht) and ECN Solar Energy (Petten) recently concluded a LCA study on crystalline silicon PV. Three mainstream Si technologies were analyzed: mono-, multi- and ribbon-crystalline silicon. Together, these PV technologies covered approx. 94 percent of the 2004 world market. The results of this study are thus representative for most of today's PV technology.

The study was carried out in the framework of the European Integrated Project CrystalClear, which aims to improve solar cells based on crystalline silicon. It attracted much enthusiasm since they were the result of a unique collaboration with 11 PV companies in Europe and USA. For the first time, up-to-date details about materials and processing steps were used over the whole production chain of PV systems.



Figure 1: Production for three types of crystalline silicon solar cells and the "system boundary" of the new Life Cycle Assessment study. Note that in the "ribbon" technology silicon wafers are pulled directly from molten silicon, without sawing, thus avoiding significant material losses.

(Rest of article at link)

Two other PV energy payback studies that may be of interest:

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35489.pdf

http://www.ongrid.net/papers/PVvsInputEnergySWCph.pdf

[LiberalPartisan]

1. Seen this yet?

In a scientific breakthrough that has stunned the world, a team of South African scientists has developed a revolutionary new, highly efficient solar power technology that will enable homes to obtain all their electricity from the sun.

This means high electricity bills and frequent power failures could soon be a thing of the past.

The unique South African-developed solar panels will make it possible for houses to become completely self-sufficient for energy supplies.

The panels are able to generate enough energy to run stoves, geysers, lights, TVs, fridges, computers - in short all the mod-cons of the modern house.

Continued...

[Gold Metal Flake]

6. Yes, I saw it a while back. Not much info.

From a PV engineer friend:

"Thanks for sending the links. The first article that you sent said that the PV panel was made of a metal alloy, which is a misnomer.

The “Science in Africa” link said that it is a CIGS panel (Copper-Indium-Gallium-Diselenide) and there are several CIGS panel manufacturers in the good ‘ol US of A.

Here’s one of them:

Daystar Technologies
13 Corporate Drive
Halfmoon, NY 12065
4102127023

DayStar Technologies, Inc. is an emerging leader in low cost, high efficiency Photovoltaic Foil™ that converts sunlight into energy. The Company’s patented and proprietary products include silicon-free CIGS solar cells, which are deposited on flexible metal foils using production processes adapted from commodity computer component manufacturing. DayStar believes the unique combination of its CIGS solar cell design coupled with inexpensive manufacturing processes on flexible metal substrates can lead to solar electricity at commercially viable rates.

The novelty in the S.A. invention is NOT the CIGS, but in a low cost way to deposit the material. I went on a visit last year with Nasser to a company in Torrance that is developing a way to deposit CIGS using industrial size ink jet printers. It can’t get much cheaper than that.

Here’s what the South African invention came up with:

The two main components of the facility are a state-of-the-art sputtering instrument and a state-of-the-art diffusion oven. The former was designed by Leybold Optics of Dresden, Germany, and the latter by Wilro Technologies in the Netherlands. Both these instruments were designed according to Prof Alberts' unique and novel specifications and are, at the moment, the only examples of their kind in the world. They also constitute the best combination of instruments of this kind in the world at present.

So, my take on this is that whoever gets a product to market quickest that is over 12% efficient, costs less than $2 per watt and has qualified it for >20 years will reap a greater market share. The market is so huge that others who come later will still do fine.

Our concentrator technology could get to less than a $1 per watt quicker than they can, since we are over 30% efficient. There are a lot of ways to skin the solar cat!!!"

[elehhhhna]

2. Where can a layman get understandable info on this?

Hubs is with a big builder and solar's time is coming. How ready for market is this tech? Ready to install on new construction? How much does it cos, how's it work, $ benefits etc.? Thanks!

[skids]

8. Here are some resources...

Vanilla panels are monitored by these guys here:

http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm

That will include your standard large panels that you've probably seen (thin film, mono, and poly.)

What it won't include is some of the better BIPV (Building Integrated PV) products that blend into the roof; for example some companies sell panels that go in place of the roof shingles. BIPV tend to be more expensive per watt but they are in demand for areas where there's a grouchy neighborhood association that thinks they control everything you do to your house.

What's also not included in the above is the solar tracker/concentrator market -- the two companies that actually have product out for sale in this area and aren't just making media PR promises are Pacific SolarTech's MicroPV and a mom & pop operation in Australia that's actually churning out a decent quantity of "SunBalls" and "SunCubes." All the so-far-available systems are active trackers, so they don't just lay flat on a roof -- a product could pop up at any time that is a passive tracking concentrator (they exist in the lab, but they haven't been turned loose on the market yet.) Other tracking-based units are due out "any time now" but have been that way for ages.

Another area that's hard to get comparative price quoting on is solar thermal (hot water heating.) There's no real centralized site monitoring those systems. And what should perhaps be the cheapest of all systems, solar hot air for space heating, is actually only sold by price gougers that charge way too much (go figure -- there are a couple reasonably priced products but nothing as cheap as it should be.)

Another useful site is here:

http://findsolar.com

...and a good place to keep up to date:

http://renewableenergyaccess.com

[keith the dem]

3. As an Engineer who works in energy,

THIS IS BIG! It is troubling that the research is from europe. It is amazing how fast we are losing our research/ scientific advantage since we got our anti-science government.

[rman]

4. and solar-electric nanotechnology is on the horizon

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/01/0114_050114_solarplastic.html

http://www.er.doe.gov/bes/reports/abstracts.html#NSET

http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=16096&ch=nanotech

[Champion Jack]

5. Kicked for later

[anoraksia53]

7. great news and

a good diagram.