solar-pr.net

Welcome to solar-pr.net!

solar-pr.net is a side project of the female expert network

https://www.ask-a-woman.com

The goal is to bring together all groups of interest together on a intercultural, interdisciplinary and interconnecting platform.

Our business goals can be divided in four dimensions supporting startups in the sector:

• Organisation
  • Business Angels and Investors
  • Strategical Consulting
  • Functional Support
  • Management Sciences
  • etc.
• Tasks
  • Architects
  • PV Engineers
  • Domain Experts
  • Politologists & Sociologists
  • Research
  • etc.
• Technology
  • Infrastructure and Network
  • System modelling and engineering
  • Performance Analytics
  • Emerging Technologies (Blockchain, Internet-of-Things (IoT), Serverless Computing, Robotics&Drones&Autonomous Vehicles, VR/AR(MR, 3d-Printing etc.)
  • etc.
• Human
  • Human-centered thinking & acting
  • Life-long-learning (LLL)
  • Marketing & Communication
  • Motivations, Interests & Participation
  • Health
  • Arts
  • etc.

Regarding the executive Summary in the PHOTOVOLTAICS (PV) REPORT of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) with the support of the PSE GmbH the following facts can be drawn up (cf. Fraunhofer 2019, p. 5):

• Between 2010 to 2018 the CAGR of PV installations was 36.8%.
• In PV module production (2017) China&Taiwan hold the lead with 70% share;
• Rest of Asia-Pacific & Central Asia (ROAP/CA) with 14.8%
• Europe with share of 3.1%(4% in 2016)
• USA/CAN with 3.7%0
• In 2018 Europe contributed 25% (26% in 2017) to the total cumulative PV installations.
• Installations in China accounted for 36% (32% in 2017).
• In 2017, of the total production, Si-wafer based PV technology accounted around 95% and multi-crystalline technology now occupies 62% (70% in 2016).
• Market shifts into competitive pricing models (Power Purchase Agreements PPA).
• The importance of batteries and storage solutions is increasing.

The PV Market of Germany in numbers is as follows (cf. Fraunhofer 2019, p. 6):

• In 2018 Germany accounted for about 9% (45.9 GWp) of cumulative PV capacity installed worldwide (515 GWp) with about 1.6 million PV systems.
• The newly installed capacity was about 2.81GWp (1.66 GWp in 2017).
• In 2018 PV covered 8.7% of the German net electricity demand,
• renewable sources about 43% of the total net power consumption in Germany.
• The PV system performance has strongly improved, a typical performance ration today is in the range of 80% to 90%.

The solar cell/module efficiencies reveal the following facts (cf. Fraunhofer 2019, p. 7):

• The record lab cell efficiency is 26.7% for mono-crystalline and 22.3% for multi crystalline silicon wafer-based technology.
• The highest lab efficiency in the film technology is 24.4% for CIGS and 21.0% for CdTe solar cells.
• In the last decade, the efficiency of average commercial wafer-based silicon modules increased from about 12% to 17%(Super-mono 21%).
• CdTe module efficiency increased from 9% to 18%.
• In the laboratory, best performing modules are based on mono-crystalline silicon with 24.4% efficiency.
• High concentration multi-junction solar cells achieve an efficiency of up to 47.1% today.
• Module Efficiencies reached up to 38.9% with concentrator technology.

The facts to the development of the energy payback time is listed below (cf. Fraunhofer 2019, p. 8):

• In last 13 years, material usage for silicon cells has been reduced from around 16g/Wp to 4g/Wp.
• The Energy Payback Time of PV systems depends on the geographical location:
  • Northern Europe needs around 2.5 years
  • Southern Europe needs around 1.5 years and less.

• In Sicily, a PV system with multi-Si modules has an Energy Payback Time of around 1 year.
• And can produce around twenty times energy needed to produce it if the lifespan is 20 years.
• The Energy Payback Time for CPV-Systems in Southern Europe is even less than 1 year.

The development in the market of inverters is listed below (cf. Fraunhofer 2019, p. 9):

• The efficiency of the newest products of inverter is up to 98% and higher.
• The market share of string inverters is around 52%,
• central inverters about 44% and about 1% belongs to micro-inverters.
• The specific net retail price of all inverters in Germany is about 12 €-cents /Wp.
• Central inverters tend to be cheaper than string inverters.
• Trends: Digitalization, Repowering, new features for grid stabilization and optimization of self-consumption; storage; utilization of innovative semiconductors (SiC or GaN).

The price development in facts is as follows (cf. Fraunhofer 2019, p. 10):

• In Germany from 1990 to 2018 the average prices for a typical 10 to 100kWp PV rooftop-system decrease from 14€/kWp to 1.07€/kWp,
• a net-price regression of  about 92% and
• an annual compound average price reduction rate of 8%.
• Due to the economies of scale and technological improvements, in the last 38 years the module price decreased 24% with each doubling of the cumulated module production.

References

Fraunhofer (2019): PHOTOVOLTAICS REPORT. Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, ISE with support of PSE GmbH.