Lessons Learned from the Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology/PV Manufacturing R&D and Thin Film PV Partnership Projects

Energy and Cost Saving of a Photovoltaic-Phase Change Materials (PV-PCM) System through Temperature Regulation and Performance Enhancement of Photovoltaics

“…As global silicon PV module manufacturing capacity has increased, average manufacturing costs have decreased from US$6/W p (where W p is peak power in watts) in 1992 to US$2.75/W p in 2005 [36], with the rate of reduction being greatest in the period 1992-2000. The reduction in average costs slowed significantly after 2000 when the cost per W p was already as low as $2.75 W p equivalent to €2.03 W p .…”

Open-source development of solar photovoltaic technology

“…Innovations in the solar industry are created within the R&D labs of universities and research centres, turnkey suppliers, and manufacturers. These universities and research centres work together with some suppliers and some manufacturers; however, the fast pace of innovation and rapid growth forces companies to fiercely maintain their IP (Margolis et al, 2006). Although research into thin films has been taking place for the past 30 years, a strong resurgence of thin film PV in the 1990s has made it into a relatively new industry (Shah et al, 1999).…”

“…This partnership model has already been applied directly in the U.S. under the Thin Film Partnership Program (TFPP), which is examined here to identify the complexities within open partnerships. The TFPP, funded by the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and started in 1992, aimed to improve "the efficiency and reliability of emerging thinfilm PV technologies through collaboration among industry, national laboratories, and universities" (Margolis et al, 2006). The program focused around the following five research areas: aSi, CIS and related materials, CdTe, environment, safety, and health (ES&H), and module reliability.…”

“…Companies and university centers also submitted quarterly reports to NREL staff, which were to be shared amongst the other team members. 5 Within the TFPP, IP was deemed essential by PV companies to maintain their competitive advantage and the partnership agreement was tailored to meet the needs of the companies (Margolis et al, 2006). For example at the aSi team meetings, companies presented private information on a need toknow basis only and it was NREL's responsibility to monitor meetings to ensure that no party was a passive participant acting as a free rider 6 .…”

Retrospective Benefit-Cost Evaluation of DOE Investment in Photovoltaic Energy Systems

“…These challenges inhibited sector and technology development. NREL, in particular, offered several prospective analyses of program goals and strategies (Surek, 1992;Mitchell et al, 1992;Witt et al, 1993), as well as retrospective assessments and case studies of technical progress and best practices to guide future endeavors (Witt et al, 2001;Margolis, 2002;Margolis et al, 2006).…”