Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
supporters of the technology. The importance of this particular technology cannot be
overstated in the
eld of energy, and only a brief summary of the main points is
offered here. Data on costs are mainly available for module and PV cells (W, or
kW.), and not so much for LCOE (kWh.). This is a limitation, but one that is
unavoidable given the fairly recent mass deployment of PV systems. Perhaps their
most relevant feature is the steady decrease in costs from 1979 to 2012, with an
average learning rate of 22 %: a total decrease from USD 14
0.9/W for Crystalline
-
Silicon (c-Si) and Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) thin-
lm modules -the most common
technologies-, and an accumulated decrease of 70
2012. These
impressive data are the result of continued support on a world scale, although it has
been intermittent at country level. The big push in the 1980s was made by Germany,
and continues today. Other countries have come along in the process, although not
so regularly: they have been mainly Europeans, but lately China and the USA have
taken major steps forward too. The main channel of support
80 % in 2011
-
-
—
the
'
feed-in tariff
'—
was de
rst implemented in Germany, and later implemented in most other
countries too. It is essentially a price guarantee for the energy generated.
The reduction in costs has been brought about by the well known process of
continued
ned and
'
'
, as a by-product of continued, mass deployment
[
28
]. The last step in this process was the development of techniques and processes
of assembly-lines in Germany. These were later sold to the Chinese, who deployed
them on a large scale, operating as usual with far lower salaries than in Europe. The
learning-by-doing
nal result is well known from other industries: the German and other European
factories have gone out of business, and almost all the world
s PV module factories
are now located in China. The earlier trends have slowed somewhat in 2013 as a
result of the Euro crisis, which has resulted in a forced reduction of public support
for renewables across the EU.
The cost of PV systems is highly variable due to differences in solar irradiance,
different types of technologies (roof or ground mounted, with one or two sun
tracking axes or indeed with none), and other characteristics of its speci
'
c market
such as labour costs, competition, public support measures in place, etc. This
further hampers efforts to draw up precise cost measures, particularly as compared
to other more mature technologies such as hydraulic and biomass. Some
gures can
be given though: at the end of 2012, total PV installation costs, or system costs,
were in the range of USD 1,700
2,200/kW for ground-mounted utility-scale sys-
-
tems
in the most competitive places
(China,
India, Germany) and USD
3,100
3,400/kW for competitive roof-top systems (in China, California, Italy). The
LCOE was in the range of 0.13
-
0.31 kWh. for utility scale projects, and as low as
0.11 kWh. at good sites, whereas for residential and off-grid systems
-
—
mainly roof-
top
gures are getting
close to grid-parity, or competitiveness without the need for public support, and in
several places that level has already been reached for utilities and residential sys-
tems. Note that electricity prices excluding taxes are 3 or 4 times higher to con-
sumers than at the producer level in many markets around the world. As for off-grid
systems, PV systems with batteries are a less costly option than diesel generation
—
the LCOE was in the range of USD 0.20
-
0.45/kWh. These
—
the usual alternative
—
almost everywhere. This also includes island systems.
Search WWH ::
Custom Search