Increasing Solar PV Efficiency Using Sustainable High Tech Materials Molecules to Megawatts Paul Meredith University of Queensland Director UQ Solar Centre for Organic Photonics and Electronics School of Mathematics and Physics Global Change Institute Brisbane Materials Technology Pty Ltd
Themes 1. The solar PV world 2. New technology in solar photovoltaics 3. Systems Level challenges Apologies to those wanting to hear about our CST work Pragmatic view on the place of solar in the mix
Top Global Utility-Scale PV Plants > 140GW PV Deployed (All) Power Location Description Commissioned 300 MW USA, Ca Topaz Solar Farm 2014 290 MW USA, Az Agua Caliente Solar Project 2014 250 MW USA, Ca California Valley Solar Reserve 2013 214 MW India, Charanka 200 MWp China, Golmud Charanka Park, Patan district PV power plant 2012 Golmud PV power plant 2012 Source: http://www.pvresources.com/pvpowerplants
PV Under Construction in the USA Source: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/top-ten-pv-projects-under-construction-in-the-us
Key Facts: Solar in Australia 1. Dominated by photovoltaics; 2. >1,000,000 roof top PV systems now installed in AU versus 20,000 in 2008; 3. Level of penetration second only to Japan at this scale; 4. >3.5GW total installed; 5. QLD >400,000 systems; >1100MW; ~ 25% of households 6. Most of the rapid increase has occurred in the mortgage belt; 7. Feed in tariffs (net and gross) funded not by the State Governments but spread across electricity users; 8. ACT Reverse Auction - FRV: Royalla bid price $186/MWh; 20MW for completion in 2014/2015; 9. First utility-scale PV plant on-line 2016 (Nyngan / Broken Hill); 10. Largest current plant 10MW in WA (Greenough River); http://pv-map.apvi.org.au/animation
Solar Photovoltaics $0.7-$1.0/watt (manufacturing) Concentrating PV -Efficiencies > 40% -Utility only Crystalline Silicon (c-si) -80% of the market -Mature technology (> 30 years) -Typical module efficiencies 12-17% -Module wholesale price $1-$2/ watt -Panels typically 150-250 watts Thin Film (a-si; CdTe, CIGS, CIS) -20% of the market -Mix of maturity (30 yrs 10 years) -Typical module efficiencies 6-14% -Module wholesale price < $1/ watt -Panels typically <150 watts -FirstSolar <$0.7/ watt manufacturing
Organic and Perovskite Solar Cells: < $0.20/watt? Armin et al. Nature Materials, 12(7) 593 (2013); Qi et al. Nature Photonics, doi/10.1038/nphoton.2014.284 (2014).
Low Cost, Flexible, Low Embedded Energy Solar Cells Heliatek Multiple Junction OPV
Low Hanging Fruit: BMT ARC on Solar Panels Standard Panel ARC Panel: 3-4% more power
UQ Solar: Industry Focused Problems Immediate issues and opportunities for solar power: Grids and systems ( Positive Solar Power cost and supply quality); MW-scale PV and storage integration (thermal, electrical, mechanical, electrochemical); Control systems; Off-grid and remote area applications; Energy market economics and policy development; Industrial solar (desalination, feed water, hydrogen production, etc.); Impact of transport electrification.
A Culture Changing Project: The UQ MW Array (http://www.uq.edu.au/solarenergy/index.html ) Key Statistics: -6.5 GW hr in 40 months; -17.8% Capacity Factor; -6.6MKg of CO 2 mitigated; - > 2000 visitors; -~ $1M in savings; -On-track for 8-10 year payback; -Data being used by industry, government and research organisations; -Still the largest roof-top PV system in AU; -An exercise in learning through doing for local generation.
The AGL Utility PV Project AGL (project developer, off-take and equity stakeholder) + FirstSolar (EPC + equity stakeholder) Project Details: - 103MW at Broken Hill New South Wales - 56MW at Nyngan New South Wales - $450M total; $130M (ARENA) + $65M (New South Wales Government) - Education Investment Fund Research Infrastructure Program $40.7M (UQ LRO + UNSW) - 3.275MW PV Research Pilot Plant + Storage at the Gatton Campus
http://uq.reliveit.com.au/login.aspx
Australian Remote Off-Grid: Surely We Can Do Better - Energy impoverished communities; - Opportunity for innovation; - More efficient off-grid industrial sites; - Ideal test sites (no transmission); - Current price > $0.60/kWh; - National learnings to international translation.
The Ultimate Place to Build a Solar Plant
Take Home Messages Australia and QLD has world-class solar resource; Costs of PV are plummeting and consumer-level grid-parity is here if one ignores the network costs; commercial-industrial parity is ~ 2-3 years off; Off-grid: massive opportunities and already cost-effective; UQ has an emerging solar research program spanning basic science through engineering to policy, regulation and economics focus on learning through doing; 5MW of Solar Power by mid-2015 Grids and networks, regulation, legislation are all current stumbling blocks to deploy more distributed and intermittent power whether it be solar or something else this is where our focus should be!
You Have to Love Nuclear Power Sony Thanks
Energy Impoverished / Remote Communities (Off-Grid) Clean, reliable, sustainable, affordable power (electricity) delivers: - Improved health; - Clean water where none existed before; - Improved well-being; - Increased productivity (food, agriculture, industry); - Improved education; - Improved wealth; - Improved environmental outcomes (deforestation, reduced use of dangerous cooking, lighting and heating fuels, reduced use of diesel). Solar power integrated with some form of storage and hybridisation can deliver: - Electricity for lighting, cooking, cooling, heating, transport, entertainment; - Hot water for cooling and heating; - Power for 24 hours; - Power for agriculture (water distribution, provision, recycling, purification); - Heat and power for industrial processes (such as mining); - Power for emergency services; - A means to educate.
Levelised Cost of Energy ($/MWh) Cost Comparisons are Difficult CPRS -5% No REC Construction On GAS @ $4 $180 $160 $140 $120 $100 $80 $60 $40 $20 $0 Courtesy of Dr Liam Wagner: 2013 Deployable Technology Types 2012/2013
Brisbane Materials Technology Start-up company based in Brisbane & Silicon Valley California (SXVP, NVP, REVC, UQ) Patented materials & process for tuneable metal oxide coatings from low cost liquid precursors, cured at room temperature & atmospheric pressure SiO 2 AR coating covalently bonded to glass substrate