High efficiency photovoltaics: on the way to becoming a major electricity source

Abstract

The dramatic growth of the photovoltaic (PV) industry—accelerated by increased economies of scale, technology improvements, research and development efforts, and strong policy support—has pushed PV to set out on its pathway to becoming a major electricity source. The speed and course of this pathway will be determined by the development of PV energy price and its relation to market electricity sales price. The current gap between PV energy price and market electricity sales is often covered by substantial government subsidies. Using the United States PV market as a case study to illustrate the need for PV energy price decline, this article details the potential contribution of high‐efficiency PV based on different materials to realize such a decline and a substantial PV electricity share. It is found that—with considerable government support—PV's electricity share in the United States can rise to 25% by 2050. In order to help the PV industry achieve significant progress without large government subsidies, more radical decline of PV system cost is necessary. As such, quantitative analysis is deployed to investigate the value of module efficiency in lowering the total PV electricity cost through a levelized cost of energy analysis. Next, the article investigates in detail the research and development opportunities for high‐efficiency PV and projects the required efficiency‐price ranges for different types of PV modules. This article is categorized under: Photovoltaics > Economics and Policy

Wide-angle planar microtracking for quasi-static microcell concentrating photovoltaics

“…Although simple and effective, this mode of tracking demands robust and often costly mechanical tracking infrastructure to adequately control the movement of large-area CPV modules, especially in windy conditions 5 . Moreover, orientation-based CPV systems have limited siting capability that prevents them from integration in urban environments or on rooftops due to their unwieldy nature and the need for large land area to avoid shading among adjacent systems 6 .…”

The Evolving Value of Photovoltaic Module Efficiency

“…Additional discussion of other types of modules and tracking options is given in the last section of this paper. Other researchers have provided overviews of the value of various modules [12,13].…”

Assessing the impact of R&D policy on PV market development: The case of South Korea

“…The global photovoltaic (PV) market grew exponentially in the last decade, with newly installed solar capacity exceeding 100 GW in the year 2018 (IEA PVPS, 2018). This was driven by individual countries' industrial policies which promoted the expansion of the PV market, and by global energy transition efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to stop climate change (Avril, Mansilla, Busson, & Lemaire, ; Wang, Byrne, Kurdgelashvili, & Barnett, ).…”

“…expansion of the PV market, and by global energy transition efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to stop climate change (Avril, Mansilla, Busson, & Lemaire, 2012;Wang, Byrne, Kurdgelashvili, & Barnett, 2012). Government R&D funds have been found by researchers to contribute to the popularization of solar PV energy through the improvement of efficiency and cost reductions (Byrne & Kurdgelashvili, 2011;IRENA, IEA, & REN21, 2018;Kharaji Manouchehrabadi & Yaghoubi, 2019).…”