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Potential for solar energy to rapidly develop innovative technologies

Solar power has lots of headroom to make it stronger, cheaper and global, Climate Wire, Umair Irfan, E&E reporter, December 17, 2015

First of a two-part series. Read part two here.

On paper, the amount of sunlight hitting the Earth in one hour could fulfill humanity’s energy needs for a year, an equation that’s hard to ignore.

However, harnessing more of this vast potential remains a major challenge, since the sun has to compete with coal, oil and natural gas — fuels that are abundant and cheap and retain substantial political support in many parts of the world, including the United States……

Though policy and market forces drive the spread of all forms of energy, for solar power, improving the technology remains an open frontier. To this end, researchers are looking at where they can improve the devices that turns the sun’s rays into electricity in hopes of staving off diminishing returns in performance……

Besides bringing efficiency up, the other main research thrust is drawing prices down. The biggest driver for solar energy deployment is cost, according to many analysts, and that’s what drove the sector’s blossoming over the past few years.

“The industry has achieved a hundredfold decrease in prices,” Kurtz said. “There is opportunity to bring those prices down even more.”

The race to lighter, thinner and more concentrated

Much of this price drop has come from economies of scale and a drop in prices of semiconductors. “In general, the semiconductor is the most expensive part of the module,” she said.

The majority of the world’s solar panels use polycrystalline silicon as their semiconductor. For a long time, solar panels using this material were costly, until Chinese manufacturers flooded the market around 2010…….

Earlier this year, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a 322-page study titled “The Future of Solar Energy.” Among its key findings, authors reported that silicon photovoltaics are a mature technology but they have intrinsic performance limits, so public research dollars should go toward breakthrough technologies instead of incremental gains…….

“Efficiency is helpful because any gain in efficiency helps reduce all area-related costs (glass, racking, roof/land space, installation labor, etc.) but it is not the only way of addressing costs,” said Justin Baca, senior director of research for the Solar Energy Industries Association, in an email. “The efficiency question is a science question, but most solutions to solar challenges right now are engineering and regulatory solutions.”

In the competition for the next generation of clean energy, Kurtz said it’s not a winner-take-all race. The market may still have room for all of these strategies. “These different photovoltaic products also have different characteristics,” she said. “I think it’s a mistake to focus on the winners and losers.”

Tomorrow: What the solar market wants.

Twitter: @umairfan Email: uirfan@eenews.net     http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060029627

December 23, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, renewable