How to achieve low-cost and sustainable systems in the solar

terawatt future?

Ran Chen, Yuchao Zhang, Moonyong Kim, Li Wang, Atom Chang, Sisi Wang,

Nathan Chang, Catherine Chan, Brett Hallam

School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia,

E-mail: ran.chen@unsw.edu.au

Abstract

Photovoltaic (PV) solar power is the most effective clean energy source in the fight against climate change. We expect the PV market to expand dramatically, from its current capacity of 1 terawatt to over 63 terawatts by 2050. While this growth will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation, it's essential to minimize the overall environmental footprint of the PV industry in order to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. In this work, we analyse the critical challenges across the PV value chain, from silicon production to modules and system levels. Our study shows that the emissions intensity of silicon purification is crucial to reducing carbon emissions at the wafer level. At the cell level, silver usage remains a primary concern. Copper plating offers a promising alternative, acting as an insurance policy against potential silver shortages. Decarbonising aluminium and concrete production and exploring alternative materials such as green steel can significantly reduce the carbon budget in PV production.

PV can be sustainable at the multi-TW scale with technologies available now; however, the challenges must be addressed to shift the primary focus from efficiency or cost to material consumption.

Keywords: Photovoltaics; PV sustainability; Silver; aluminum; Greenhouse emission;  Terawatt scale; Net zero 2050

Biography:

Ran Chen is a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Australia. Her research has been focusing on the investigation and mitigation of defects in both p- and n-type commercial silicon solar cells and novel methods to reduce the scarce materials (e.g. silver) used in solar cells and her recent focus has been on improving the long-term sustainability of the PV industry.