Solar Energy

Terri FiezHead & Professor, School of EECSCo-founder Azuray Technologies

What Has Changed????

Unprecedented GrowthUnprecedented Growth in Populationin Population

&& UrbanizationUrbanization

Tipping Point: The China Miracle

U.S. Supplies 50% of its Energy with Coal

China Supplies 80% of its Energy with Coal

Are We Doomed?

Energy Security

Clean Tech is Cool

Why Solar? It’s Free!!

• On a bright, sunny day, the sun shines approximately 1,000 watts of energy per square meter of the planet's surface, and if we could collect all of that energy we could easily power our homes and offices for free.

How Does Solar Work?

• Energy in the form of photons causes charges to be excited in a semiconductor – electrical current flows

Mono-Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells(15-22% Efficient)

Cross Section of Solar Cell Completed Solar Cell

Other Solar Technologies

Polycrystalline Silicon

Flexible Thin Film

Thin Film

Solar Installations

Balance of System

• Everything but the Solar Panel– Wiring– DC-AC Converter– Combiner boxes– Racking & mounting– Etc.

Solar Energy Conversion to Grid

Today’s System Future System

DC

Inverter

AC

Grid or User

AC

Grid or User

Micro-inverter

Is Solar PV Too Expensive?

What about government subsidies?Energy Tax Credits as much as 50% of

system…

Solar from 1973 to TodayManufacturing from 1MW100MW

18

$300/kg$30/kg3 inches in diameter

Now 8” Sawn one at a timeNow < $0.25/W Thinner wafers: 15 mil → 10 mil

0.5 watts each3W

$100/watt$1-$5/watt

$200/watt $7/watt

Wafered Silicon Process

Polysilicon Wafer Solar Cell Solar Module SystemsIngot

Source Modified from: Dick Swansen, SunPower

Solar Panel Cost Drops by 19% withEach Doubling in Manufacturing Capacity

1

10

100

1 10 100 1000 10000Cumulative Production (MW)

Module Price

(2002$)

1979$32/W

2002$3.10/W

Silicon Shortage

81% Progress Ratio

Solar reducing from $0.18/kWhr to $0.09 /kWhr by 2012

World’s Energy Supplied by Solar: 0.06% in 2008 -- Projected 9% in 2030

Solar Cell/Module Production

20Source: Good Energies

Cost & Benefit of Solar

Palm Springs, CA Portland, OR Redding, CA Newark, NJ Flagstaff, AZ Scottsdale, AZ

572 252 449 281 528 553

0.14 0.07 0.14 0.1726 0.0999 0.0999

kWhr/Yr Avg $/kWhr

22

Historical PV LandscapeEra Main Players Characteristics

1975-1985 Small Start-ups–Solar Technology

International → ARCO–Solar Power Corp. → Exxon–Solarex → BP–Tyco → Mobile

•Rapid Growth

•Development of

technology

paradigm

1985-1995 Oil Companies–ARCO–Exxon–BP–Mobile–Shell

•Moderate growth

•Search for market

•Massive losses

•Few start-ups

Source : Dick Swansen, SunPower

23

Historical PV Landscape

Era Main Players Characteristics

1995 – 2005 Japanese Companies–Sharp–Sanyo–Kyocera

•Emergence of

residential roof market•Improved manufacturing

2000 - Entrepreneurial Co’s–Q-Cells (Germany)–Scanwafer (Norway)–Solar World (Germany)–Evergreen (US)–SunPower (US)–Suntech (China)–MiaSole (US)–Nanosolar (US)

•Explosive growth•Profitability•Technology evolution

Source : Dick Swansen, SunPower

Recent Industry Milestones

1999: 1 GW accumulated module production

2001: More square inches of silicon used than in entire microelectronics industry

2004: 1 GW production during year2006: More tons of silicon used than in

microelectronics

24Source: Dick Swansen, SunPower

Solar PV Early in Growth Cycle

25Source: Good Energies

Large Solar Installations

26

Bavaria SolarPark, Germany (10MW)

Wind and Solar Production

Source: Hal LaFlash, PG&E

Oregon Reinvents Itself…

Forestry

Silicon Forest

Solar Forest