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

Charanka Park, Patan district PV power plant

2012

200 MWp China, Golmud

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)

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

Concentrating PV -Efficiencies > 40% -Utility only

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 CO2 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.

Cost Comparisons are Difficult

CPRS -5%

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Deployable Technology Types 2012/2013Courtesy of Dr Liam Wagner: 2013

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

Brisbane Materials Technology

SiO2 AR coating covalently bonded to glass substrate