The document summarizes a webinar on photovoltaic installations. It discusses the principles of photovoltaics and how solar energy is converted to electrical energy. It also reviews market trends in PV capacity, the development of building integrated PV, different PV technologies and materials, and examples of residential and commercial PV installations. Costs associated with PV systems and their components are examined. Future trends in thin film cells and concentrator photovoltaics that may drive further cost reductions are also outlined.

1. Leonardo ENERGY Webinar:
Photovoltaic Installations
Ton van der Wekken
9 May 2007
Experience you can trust.

2. Contents
• Photovoltaic (PV) principle
• Market development
• Building integrated PV (BIPV)
• Examples BIPV
• PV technology
• Cost breakdown
• Example: 5 kWp system
• Future trends

3. Photovoltaic principle: Electrical
energy from solar irradiation

4. Photovoltaic principle: Grid
connection

5. Worldwide capacity of installed PV,
off-grid and grid-connected
4000
Cumulative installed PV power by application area
3500
Cumulative installed capacity [MW]
3000
Grid-connected
2500
Off-grid
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Year

6. Leading European countries
in PV
Cumulative installed PV
European Country 2003 2004 2005
[MWp] [MWp] [MWp]
Austria 16.8 21.1 24.0
France 21.1 26.0 33.0
Germany 431 794 1429
Italy 26.0 30.7 37.5
Netherlands 45.9 49.1 50.8
UK 5.9 8.2 10.9
Spain 27.0 37.0 57.4
Switzerland 21.0 23.1 27.1

7. Building Integrated Photovoltaics
(BIPV): Pros and Cons
• Pros BIPV
- No or limited permitting procedures
- Showing awareness of inhabitants/owners
- Generating and use coincide in time and place
- Multifunctional application often feasible
- High technical potential
• Cons BIPV
- Systems are relatively small
- Without incentives not cost effective
- Additional contract for reimbursement feed-in
- At budget cut: PV drops out first

8. Ground based PV system

9. Ground Based PV compared to
traditional power plants
• Pros ground based PV
– Neither air nor noise pollution;
– No greenhouse gases;
– No visual nuisance.
• Cons ground based PV
– A hectare per MWp installed;
– High costs per MWp;
– Permitting procedures comparable to other
power plants

10. Residental houses,
PV installed on sloped roof

11. Multifunctional:
Roof from semi-transparant PV

12. Multifunctional:
PV integrated in sound barrier

13. Multifunctional:
PV integrated in sun blind

14. PV-Technology:
some facts
• Installed PV power defined as Watt-peak (Wp,
kWp and MWp)
• Central and Northern Europe: maximum irradiation
1000 W/m2
• Southern Europe: max. irradiation 1700 W/m2
• Optimal orientation: South
• Optimal tilt angle PV modules: 35 - 38°

15. PV-Technology:
cell materials and efficiencies
Cell material Cell efficiency System efficiency Yearly yield
[kWh/m2]
[%] [%]
Mono-crystalline (m-Si) 17 13.5 85 - 90
Poly-crystalline (p-Si) 15 12 80 - 85
Thin film (a-Si) 8 6.5 50 - 60

16. PV-Technology:
electrical scheme

17. PV-Technology:
Maximum Power Point Tracking
(MPPT)

18. Cost breakdown PV system
-From 15 to 5 €/Wp in a decade-
PV component Costs
[€/Wp]
Modules 4.0 – 4.5
Inverter 0.5 – 1.0
Balance of System (BOS) 1.0
TOTAL 5.5 – 6.5

19. 5-kWp roof integrated PV system
Orientation Sloped roof, oriented south to south-west
Support structure In the roof tile plane upon the roof battens
Module support profiles (aluminium) mounted on the roof battens
Brackets to clamp the modules on the support profiles
Module data Gross dimensions 0.8 x 1.6 meters, Al frame
Maximum power 150 Wp
72 multi-crystalline Si-cells measuring 12.5 x 12.5 cm
Module efficiency 13%
Junction box including bypass diodes at the back
System layout 32 modules (lay-out 4x8)
2
Gross area 6.4 x 6.4 m (41 m )
Installed power 4800 Wp
4 parallel strings, 8 modules per string connected in series
2 inverters of 2500 W, 2 strings per inverter
Performance 3500 kWh per year
Electrical connection PV Two separate electrical connections of 2500 W
system Two different meterings, one for use by the house equipment and the
other for feed-in by the PV-system.
Lifetime Modules and support structure 30 years
Watertightness of materials 20 to 25 years
Inverters 10 to 15 years
Financial data Turnkey investment € 30,000
Simple Pay Out Time (SPOT) 43 years at € 0,20 /kWh, an average consumer tariff
17 years at € 0,50 /kWh high feed in tariff (based on incentives)

20. Future developments
• Cost reduction by economics of scale
• Thin film cells
– Shortage of crystalline Si boosts thin film
– Materials are amorphous silicon (a-Si), copper
indium diselenide (CIS), cadmium telluride
(CdTe)
• Concentrator cells (CPV)
– Efficiency >20%
– Use of mirrors and sun tracking system
• Speral solar technology
- Minute silicon beads on Al foil
- Less Si material needed

21. Thank you for your attention!
Any questions?
Experience you can trust.