[Hamburg, Germany]

Taking over the reins from Conference General Chairman Dr. Heinz Ossenbrink, Technical Programme Chairman Dr. Arnulf Jäger-Waldau presented the 26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (26th EU PVSEC) Selection of Conference Highlights during the Closing Session.

From 26th EU PVSEC Conference Highlights

Dr. Jäger-Waldau’s presentation is captured as a Picasa slideshow and via manual text entry below in order to facilitate online search.

Selection of Conference Highlights
Arnulf Jäger-Waldau
Technical Programme Chairman
European Commission, DG JRC

PV Taking Off
Greek Helios Project:
– 3 to 10 GW by 2020

USA SunShot Initiative:
– The Apollo Mission of our time
– 75% cost reduction for PV systems by the end of the decade

PV Taking Off
European Union:
– NREAP PV Target 2020: 85 GW
– Status Quo 09/2011 : about 40 GW

China
– New Target for 2015: 10 GW
– 50 GW in 2020 under discussion
– Six Major Markets of Greentech Development
   Government Funding for RE earmarked:
   US$ 700-800 bln.

PV Taking Off
Germany: 100% RE is possible
Economic PV market potential by 2020
   Roughly 2,800 – 4,300 GWp

All Scenarios underestimated and (estimate) PV growth

Update of the Strategic Research of the PV Technology Platform

Advanced Photovoltaics
High Concentrating PV Technology in 2011:
– Cell efficiency lab : ~43.5%
     mass production : 39.2%
– Module efficiency : ~25 – 31%
– System efficiency : ~23 – 27%

Organic PV in 2011
– 9.2% record (Mitsubishi 09/2011)
– Different companies certify cells over 8%

Wafer-Based Silicon Solar Cell & Materials Technology
Industrial c-Si Technology Roadmap:
– predicts a silicon need of 300,000 tons
– reduction of production costs by a factor 2-3 by 2020

Silicon Wafering Technology Trends:
– Improvement in yields
– Development of kerf-free wafering – not yet ready

Wafer-Based Silicon Solar Cell & Materials Technology
Replacement of silver by copper: 19.4% on large area cells

Increasing share of n-type silicon

Interconnected back contact cells (Sunpower):
– lab : 24.2%
– production : 22.4%

Silicon Heterojunction Cells
– EU Project HETSI realised a 20.7% 100cm² cell
– New HIT cell record: 23.7% on 98um wafer (Sanyo)

Thin Film Solar Cells
Thin Film Production 2010
Total: 3.4 GW
tf silicon: 1.58 GW
CdTe 1.47 GW
CIGSSe 0.36 GW

Solar Frontier’s 900MW
CIGS Kunitomi Plant in
Miyazaki, Japan, ramped up
to full capacity (July 2011)

Thin Film Solar Cells (Records)
CIGS: Module (0.7m²) 14% (ZSW/Manz)

CdTe (First Solar, July 2011)
– cell 17.3%
– module 13.5%

Nano-crystalline silicon (UniSolar, 12/2010)
– 12% for large-area encapsulated cell (400 cm²)

Dye cells: Top efficiencies above 11% (Sharp)

Components for PV Systems
Sustainability and Environmental Impact is a key topic

Large PV installations and Biodiversity are not in contradiction

Material availability for PV
– Improve knowledge of reserves
– Optimisation of waste management and recycling
– Reductions of material use
– Maintain technology diversity

PV Systems
8 May 2011: PV in Germany
(PV+Wind: >50%)
13 GW PV, PV: >30%

Significant cost reductions possible compared to traditional grid re-enforcement

PV Systems
PV plays an important role for shaping a new kind of public spaces (hybrid landscapes)

PV Architecture is a win-win for
– building industry: move to sustainability
– PV Industry: opportunity to develop new markets
– the citizen

Generating photovoltaic forms for landscapes

Enmeshing Photovoltaics: strands and patches

Thank you for your attention!

Dr. Ossenbrink’s “(Some) Highlights” presentation has been a conference highlight in itself for the past five (5) EU PVSECs I attended when he was the Technical Programme Chairman. I believe scientists and engineers alike will miss his detailed technical and policy impressions from the EU PVSEC Conference.

Since I took so long getting this post out, Dr. Jäger-Waldau’s official Selection of Conference Highlights presentation is now available for download.