EAEE E4190 Photovoltaic Systems

Engineering and Sustainability

Prof. Vasilis Fthenakis
Earth & Environmental Engineering Department
Center for Life Cycle Analysis, Columbia University

1st lecture on 9-5-2019

1
 ` Introduction

• The Energy Challenge

• The Climate Change Challenge
• The Potential of Solar Energy
• Photovoltaics Basics and History
• Photovoltaics Technologies
• Overview of Market and Technologies
• The System
-- Solar Cells ModuleArray+InvertersPower PlantGrid
-- Resources (sun, land, materials, water)
-- Costs
-- Intermittency
The Energy Challenge
Growing Demand for Energy due to population growth
and rising energy intensity

3
Conventional Energy Resources:
How much is left at what cost?

– Oil: 40 – 125 years

– Natural Gas: 65 - 210 years
– Coal: 250 – 360 years
– Uranium: 80 – 300 years
Science 329, 786 (2010)

More Difficult/Costly/Risky

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Shale Gas: the winning card of the
fossil fuel industry?

 Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) pros and

cons http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/new-york-fracking-
decision_n_1862112.html#slide=524135
 Potential Dangers of Climate Change

1 2 3 4 5 6º C

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/12/1112-melting-glaciers-mean-double-trouble-for-water-supplies/
http://climate.nasa.gov/

Extreme events

http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003900/a003977/index.html

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Is Solar Energy a Better Alternative?
Energy Sources: Annual Renewables (TWyr/yr) &Total Non-Renewables (TWyr)

Source: Richard Perez, 2008

http://asrc.albany.edu/people/faculty/perez/Kit/pdf/Making%20the%20case%20for%20solar%20energy.pdf
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 Energy Units & Conversions
 Electricity
• kWh, MWh, GWh, TWh
 Thermal (Primary) Energy
• Joule (J)=Watt*sec=Newton*m, MJ, EJ (ExaJoule,
1018 J)
• Btu QBtu (Quad, 1015 Btu)
 1 kWh=1000 Wh=1000 W*3600 s=3.6*106 Ws= 3.6 MWs= 3.6 MJe
 1 MJe =~3 MJp (accounting for thermal to electricity conversion losses) (see Textbook Problem, 1.1)
 1 kJ = 0.948 Btu = 239 cal = 2.78 10-4 KWh
 1 Btu = 1.055 kJ
 1 Quad = 1.055 EJ
 1 barrel crude oil = 42 gal
 Energy content of fuels
• 1 m3 natural gas ~1 L oil ~1 kg coal ~ 2 kg wood =~10 kWh
 US Electricity consumption ~4100 TWh; total Global Electricity ~16,000 TWh
 Total US Energy Consumption ~100 Quads; Total Global Energy
Consumption ~460 Quads
 US crude oil demand ~19 million barrels/day; total Global oil demand ~90
million barrels/day

Additional Units background at: http://www.aps.org/policy/reports/popa-reports/energy/units.cfm

Our Big Fusion Reactor in the Sky
Earth

6,000 K
93,000,000 miles
150e6 km
100,000 K 11,625 earth Dia
8 light minutes

14,000,000 K
Diameter: 109 Earths
Volume: > 1.3 million Earths
Every second 700e6 tons of H
converted to He

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Terrestrial Solar Spectrum:
Effect of Scattering and Absorption
ASTM Standard Extraterrestrial Solar Spectrum Reference (solar
constant=1366 W/m2)
 The Sun Drives Most Energy Forms
Earth’s Annual Global Mean Energy Budget

Plants and organic matter + heat + pressure + time =

fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, petroleum, etc.)
Source: JT Kiehl and KE Trenberth, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol 78, No. 2, February 1997
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 Solar Energy Technologies

Light

Sunburn Heat (#photons/m2/s)

(W/m2)

Heating
•Passive
•Active
(fluid or air)

Electricity
•Direct (PV)
•Turbines (CSP)

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Solar Electricity -Photovoltaics

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 Definition

Photovoltaic (PV) systems convert the energy of light into electricity.

The term “photo” originates from the Greek “phos” which means light

“Volt” is named for Alessandro Volta (1745-1827)

Como, Lombardy (Italy), a physicist, pioneer in
the study of electrochemistry

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Edmund Becquerel 1820-1891
In 1839, Edmund Becquerel, a 19 year-old French physicist,
discovered the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with an
electrolytic cell made up of two metal electrodes.
He found that certain materials would produce small amounts of electric
current when exposed to light.

Becquerel published in 1867-1868 the treatise in two volumes

“La Lumière, ses causes et ses effets”.

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 Einstein Demystifies Photoelectric
Effect

Einstein's Explanation of the Photoelectric Effect *

Über einen die Erzeugung und Verwandlung des Lichtes betreffenden heuristischen Gesichtspunkt,
in English, On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light, 1905

Nobel prize in physics in 1921

“for explaining the photoelectric effect and for his other services to theoretical physics"

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Jan Czochralski invented a method for
commercial production of 99.9999% pure crystalline
silicon

The Czochralski process produces

highly pure crystalline silicon; developed in early 1950s

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 Bell Labs Invent Si Solar Cells- 1953

The first usable solar cell was

developed by Pearson,
Chapin and Fuller at Bell
Labs;
a silicon solar cell with 6%
efficiency

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Bell Labs invent CIGS solar cells -1974

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 Photovoltaic Systems Analysis
Solar Cells PV Modules PV Array Strings

PV Power Plants PV-Storage-Grid

PV
Plants Storage

Transmission Line

Load
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System Types
Grid Connected System
(Line Tie or Utility Interface)

Stand Alone
DC System

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 Types of Photovoltaics
1st Generation -Si-based
mono-crystalline
multi-crystalline
ribbon

2nd Generation –Si and II/VI Compounds

Amorphous Si
Cadmium telluride
Copper Indium Galium Diselenide
Nano-crystallinine Si

3rd Generation
III/V Compounds: GaAs/InP concentrator PV
Dye-sensitized PV
Organic PV
Perovskites
Nanostructures

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Why so many PV technologies?
Part of the reason is the solar spectrum is wide
#photon/m2/s)
(W/m2)

Bandgap E(eV)= 1.24 /λ(μm)

V

I
 PV Basics
The operation of solar cells is based of the electron-hole pairs due to
absorption of visible or other electromagnetic radiation by a
semiconductor material. Electromagnetic radiation can be described in
terms of waves, which are characterized by wavelength (λ ) and
frequency (ν), or in terms of discrete particles, photons, which are
characterized by energy (hν) expressed in electron volts. The following
formulas show the relations between these quantities:

ν=c /λ
E=hν/q
E (eV) = 1.24 / λ (µm)

Where
c is the speed of light in vacuum (2.998 × 108 m/s),
h is Planck’s constant (6.625 × 10-34 Js), and
q is the elementary charge (1.602 × 10-19 Cb).

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 Bandgaps of Various Materials
There is not a single material that matches the whole spectrum
40

-
Shockley-Queisser limit
Efficiency (%)

30

Si GaAs

InP
20
AM0
Cu(In, Ga)Se
2
CdTe AM1.5
CuInSe
2
Cu(In, Ga)(S,Se) a-Si:H
Ge 2
10 CuInS CdS
Cu S 2
2 CuGaSe
2

0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5

Energy (eV)

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 Shockley – Queisser Limit
Thermodynamic Limit: 30% Conversion
– Photons below band gap are not absorbed
– Photon energy in excess of band gap wasted
l (nm) 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200
UV NIR
E (eV) 4.1 3.1 2.5 2.1 1.8 1.55 1.38 1.24 1.12 1.0

E(eV) = 1.24/ l (µm); c-Si E=1.12 eV it can be activated with l ≤ 1.1 µm; 27
 Semiconductors = Active Layers
Ia IIa Ib IIb III IV V VI VII VIII

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Solar Cell Record Efficiencies

29
Efficiencies of Commercial PV
Modules & Cells

30
 Cost-Efficiency Analysis
for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Generation PV Technologies
Nanotechnology
enabled PV
2030 ?

Shockley-Queisser limit

GaAs/InP
30 % concentrators
2014 ?

Mono-crystalline Si based modules

CdTe PV 16% efficient modules 20% efficient ~$250/m2 module cost
~$ 90/m2 module cost

Wolden C, Kurtin J., Baxter J., Repins I., Shaheen S., Torvik J., Rockett A., Fthenakis V., Aydil E. ,
Photovoltaic Manufacturing: Present Status and Future Prospects, J. Vac. Sci. Technolo. 29(3), 030801-16, 2011
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 Annual PV Module Production from
2010 -2018

Jäger-Waldau, A. (2018). Snapshot of photovoltaics − February 2018. EPJ Photovoltaics, 9, 6.

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjpv/2018004
 Annual PV Installations from
2010-2018

Jäger-Waldau, A. (2018). Snapshot of photovoltaics − February 2018. EPJ Photovoltaics, 9, 6.

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjpv/2018004
Cumulative PV Installations
 Cumulative PV Installations from
2010-2018

Jäger-Waldau, A. (2018). Snapshot of photovoltaics − February 2018. EPJ Photovoltaics, 9, 6.

https://doi.org/10.1051/epjpv/2018004
 New Installed or Decommissioned Electricity
Generation Capacity in Europe in 2018

https://www.statista.com/statistics/807386/newly-installed-decommissioned-
power-capacity-european-union-eu-28/36
United States

37
 State Renewable Portfolio Standards

• Current RPS will require 73 GW of new RE capacity by 2025

Barbose, G. (2019). U.S. Renewables Portfolio Standards. 48. https://emp.lbl.gov/projects/renewables-portfolio

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Global PV Module Prices
System Cost

 PV module
 Power electronics
 Permitting
 Installation
U.S. Installed Capacities and Avg. Prices
 U.S. Installed Capacities and Avg. Prices
Beyond 2015

https://www.seia.org/solar-industry-research-data
 Projected PV and Electricity Prices

Geographic Locations
Phoenix, AZ
Kansas City, MO
New York, NY

Financing Conditions
Low: 8.2%
High: 9.9%

th
Source: J. Lushetsky, Solar Technologies Program, US-DOE, 25 EUPV, Valencia, Spain, Sept. 2010

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Fthenakis residence, Dix Hills, NY -4.8 KW

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Bldg Integrated PV –ECN –The Netherlands
PV on Aquarium Roof -England
Marchal, Spain; with permission from Blitzstrom/Beck Energy, March 2007
7.2 kW 47
Dimbach, Germany; with permission from Blitzstrom /Beck Energy, March 2007
1.3 MW
48
Sinzheim, Germany, with permission from Juwi, 2006
1.4MW
49
Highway Sound Barrier -Germany
Section of the 10 MWac PV power plant at Tibet Sangri, China (Trina)
The 300 MWac PV power plant at Yunnan Jianshui, China (Trina)

52
Tucson Electric Power , Springerville, AZ, 5 MW plant 53
Section of the Desert Sunlight 550 MWac CdTe power plant in California (First Solar/ NEXTera Energ

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Desert Sunlight 550 MWac CdTe power plant in California (First Solar/
NEXTera Energy
HW 1

Read whole Chapter 1

Read Questions & Understand Answers in Chapter 1

Do Problems 1.1, 1.3, 1.4

Due next Thursday