Sustainable Energy 332:402, P.

Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:

Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII- 93

New Jersey
 Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII- 94

Solar Energy Consumer: 1kW system statistics

• A 1 kW home solar system installed costs about US$9000 (before any
rebate programs).
• Takes between one and two days to install.
• For an installed system costing $9 per watt peak, this equates to about
25-30 US cents per kW-h in a sunny climate.
• The solar module (solar panel) itself accounts for between 40-50% of
the total cost of an installed solar energy system.
• A sunny location (i.e. Los Angeles, USA) receives approximately 5.5
hours of sunlight on average throughout the year.
• A cloudy location (i.e. Hamburg, Germany) receives approximately
2.5 hours of sunlight on average throughout the year.
• The typical main components of a solar home system are the solar
module, an inverter, a battery, a charge controller (regulator), wiring
and support structure.
• A typical silicon cell Solar Module will have a life in excess of 20
years. It's electric generating capacity may degrade gradually between
0-20% over its useful life.
 Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII- 95

• A Solar Energy System can provide electricity 24 hours a day combined

with batteries in one integrated energy system.
• Solar Modules do produce electricity even on cloudy days, some 10-20%
of that on sunny days
• A 1 kW peak Solar System will generate around 1,600 kW-h per year in a
sunny climate and about 750 kW-h per year in a cloudy climate.
• A 1 kW Solar System (about 10-12 solar modules) requires about 100
square feet of installation area.
• A 12 cubic feet Refrigerator uses about 800 kW-h per year
• A 500 Watt portable heater uses about 150 kW-h per year
• A clothes dryer (4 hours week) uses about 1000 kW-h per year
• 10 gallon fish tank with light and heater uses 400 kW-h per year
• Lighting for 5 rooms uses about 1000 kW-h
• A Color Television (6 hours a day) uses 600 kW-h a year
• A personal computer (6 hours a day) uses 650 kW-h.
Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII- 96
 Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII- 97

Impact of solar
system price on
payback time of the
purchase as a
function of the
value of the
electricity
generated, using a
discount rate of 5%.
The cheaper the
Solar System, the
faster the economic
payback.
The higher the
regular electricity
rate (x axis), the
faster the payback.
 Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII- 98

Unit XIII: Solar Energy

• General Characteristics of Solar Energy

• Resource Assessment
• Passive and Active Solar Thermal Energy for Buildings
• Solar Thermal Electric Systems - Concentrating Solar Power.
• Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems
• Sustainability Attributes
• Summary and Prognosis.
 Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII- 99

Sustainability Attributes

• Solar energy uses range from 1-10 kW -scale heating and cooling
systems up to 10-200 MW-scale, CSP
• Capturing, storing, and converting solar energy into usable heat or
electricity is not necessarily a sustainable energy system.
• The hardware and space it takes to concentrate, convert, and store this
intermittent and dilute energy resource carries its own environmental
and economic burden.
• It takes about two years of operation for the silicon PV collector to
recover the amount of energy that was needed to manufacture it.
• Solar hot-water heaters and passive Trombe walls recover their
embedded energy content quickly.
• Some PV materials, such as CdTe and CulnSe2 or GaAs are toxic, and
the processes associated with recovering, purifying, and utilizing these
materials carry their own impacts.
 Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII-100

• PV service lives is 25 years or more; resource consumption and

environmental contamination may be much less than originally thought
• There are substantial challenges in using solar energy to provide a
large fraction of the energy needs of a megacity
• Storage of electricity and/or heat will be necessary in most solar
energy applications.
• The land required for large-scale solar electric installations is an
environmental impact
• A CSP plant in the US southwest desert would need about 20 square
miles of land to produce the same amount of electricity as the Hoover
Dam. The inundated portions of land behind Hoover Dam amount to
over 10 times as much area.
 Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII-101

• In the 1970s and 1980s tax incentives and growing customer demand
led to many new companies; unfortunately, most were not able to
produce a reliable product.
• In 1984, over 250 manufacturers in the US sold over 1.5 million m2 of
collectors, but by 1990, over 200 had gone out of business
• Poor choices of materials, inadequate control systems, and shoddy
workmanship on-site led to frequent failures and distrust in solar
technology.
• Israel, Australia, and Cyprus have seen growing markets and increased
penetration of solar technology because of a high-quality solar
resource and favorable policies
 Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII-102

Unit XIII: Solar Energy

• General Characteristics of Solar Energy

• Resource Assessment
• Passive and Active Solar Thermal Energy for Buildings
• Solar Thermal Electric Systems - Concentrating Solar Power.
• Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems
• Sustainability Attributes
• Summary and Prognosis
 Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII-103

Summary and Prognosis

• Solar Energy utilization requires

– proper matching of the solar resource and energy demands,
– workable distributed energy systems,
– a means for storing heat, and
– policy incentives.
• Financial restructuring of energy markets will be needed to place
additional value on solar energy over fossil fuels.
• The inherent flexibility and simplicity of solar systems makes good
sense for producing affordable energy-efficient buildings.
 Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII-104

• The benefits of solar systems are substantially enhanced when coupled

to advanced energy efficiency technologies
• Solar thermal and PV devices that are integrated into the building
structure can produce a portion of required hot water, air conditioning,
and electricity.
• The relatively high capital costs of solar thermal and PV systems will
continue to require incentives to encourage their widespread
application.
 Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII-105

• The use of concentrating solar energy could lead to deployment in

many countries or regions that have a high-grade direct solar resource.
• With modest incentives, CSP methods could be used at breakeven
prices of <10¢/kWh on a large enough scale to make a difference.
• With a major population shift in the US to the southwest, electric
demand is increasing right where there is a high-grade CSP resource.
• Advocates suggest that over 20,000 MWe of CSP capacity could be
deployed in the US southwest within a decade.
• Further R&D support for both PV and CSP technologies will have an
impact on increasing reliability and durability while lowering module
manufacturing costs.
• There is a need for improved standardization of components, and
testing of components and complete systems, to increase product
quality and consumer confidence.