Query: The costs of solar panels

Candidate papers:

abstract: Photovoltaic panels have a limited lifespan and estimates show large amounts of solar modules will be discarded as electronic waste in a near future. In order to retrieve important raw materials, reduce production costs and environmental impacts, recycling such devices is important. Initially, this article investigates which silicon photovoltaic module's components are recyclable through their characterization using X ray fluorescence, X ray diffraction, energy dispersion spectroscopy and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Next, different separation methods are tested to favour further recycling processes. The glass was identified as soda lime glass, the metallic filaments were identified as tin lead coated copper, the panel cells were made of silicon and had silver filaments attached to it and the modules' frames were identified as aluminium, all of which are recyclable. Moreover, three different components segregation methods have been studied. Mechanical milling followed by sieving was able to separate silver from copper while chemical separation using sulphuric acid was able to detach the semiconductor material. A thermo gravimetric analysis was performed to evaluate the use of a pyrolysis step prior to the component's removal. The analysis showed all polymeric fractions present degrade at 500 degC.
author_names: Pablo Ribeiro Dias

Mariana Goncalves Benevit

Hugo Marcelo Veit
title: Photovoltaic solar panels of crystalline silicon: Characterization and separation
venue: Waste management research the journal of the International Solid Wastes and Public Cleansing Association, ISWA
year: 2016

abstract: With the increasing implementation of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, comprehensive methods and tools are required to dynamically assess their economic and environmental costs and benefits under varied spatial and temporal contexts. This study integrated system dynamics modeling with life cycle assessment and life cycle cost assessment to evaluate the cumulative energy demand, carbon footprint, water footprint, and life cycle cost of residential grid connected (GC) and standalone (SA) solar PV systems. The system dynamics model was specifically used for simulating the hourly solar energy generation, use, and storage during the use phase of the solar PVs. The modeling framework was then applied to a residential prototype house in Boston, MA to investigate various PV panel and battery sizing scenarios. When the SA design is under consideration, the maximum life cycle economic saving can be achieved with 20 panels with no battery in the prototype house, which increases the life cycle economic savings by 511.6% as compared to a baseline system sized based upon the engineering rule of thumb (40 panels and 40 batteries) yet decreases the demand met by 55.7% However, the optimized environmental performance was achieved with significantly larger panel (up to 300 units) and battery (up to 320 units) sizes. These optimized configurations increase the life cycle environmental savings of the baseline system byup to 64.6% but significantly decrease the life cycle economic saving by up to 6868.4% There is a clear environmental and economic tradeoff when sizing the SA systems. When the GC system design is under consideration, both the economic and environmental benefits are the highest when no battery is installed, and the benefits increase with the increase of panel size. However, when policy constraints such as limitations/caps of grid sell are in place, tradeoffs would present as whether or not to install batteries for excess energy storage.
author_names: Mingcheng Ren

Clayton R Mitchell

Weiwei Mo
title: Dynamic life cycle economic and environmental assessment of residential solar photovoltaic systems.
venue: The Science of the total environment
year: 2020

abstract: T recent thrust toward utilizing nanomaterials for light energy conversion has brought noticeable success in the field of thin film photovoltaics (PV) In fact, thin film solar cells have already demonstrated themselves to be a viable commercial technology. Furthermore, the recent success of achieving more than 20% power conversion efficiency with organic inorganic lead halide perovskites (http:/www.nrel. gov/ncpv/images/efficiency_chart.jpg) has led the speculation that these devices may provide the transformative leap needed to drive widespread adaptation of thin film PV. Although the photovoltaic efficiency of thin film solar cells is steadily increasing, the price of these panels continues to drop at the same time, bringing PV technology closer to grid power. Continued reduction in the panel, installation, and balance of systems costs of PV could soon transform an imagined ideal into reality; solar energy may be able to directly compete with, and even outcompete, energy from fossil fuels. Semiconductor assisted hydrogen production and reduction of CO2 are being projected as attractive approaches for storing solar energy in the form of fuels. Despite the successes achieved in recent years in thin film photovoltaics, the story is markedly different for solar fuel generation by semiconductor assisted photocatalysis (Scheme 1) By integrating two perovskite solar cells with a relatively modest solar to electric power conversion efficiency of 15.7% in series with an electrolyzer, Luo and coworkers were able to split water with an overall efficiency of over 12% However, designing a cost effective stand alone photocatalytic reactor with efficiency in a similar range remains an ambitious goal. The first photocatalytic water splitting was introduced by Honda and Fujishima in 1972. Yet, despite over four decades of photocatalytic research, a practically compatible technology does not seem to be a near term reality. Progress is lagging in terms of material deployment as well as truly scalable devices. It is now generally accepted that a single light absorber system will likely not overcome all the barriers in photocatalytic water splitting. Given the 1.23 V thermodynamic barrier for water splitting and the overpotential required for the water oxidation at the photoanode and/or reduction of H at the photocathode, one would require a semiconductor with bandgap energy of 1.5 to 2.0 eV to drive the photocatalytic process efficiently with visible light. To date, no single semiconductor system has been identified that can continuously produce hydrogen without the aid of an external bias or use of sacrificial electron donor. New strategies to utilize multijunction tandem devices and photocatalysts assembled with a Z scheme show promise in bringing about transformative change in the field of photocatalysis; however, it is important that the scientific community realize the limitations inherent in implementing proton coupled electron transfer processes in photocatalytic systems. Nevertheless, given the current thrust in funded research for solar fuel production, one can feel optimistic that continued advances could make it as effective as PV technology in the near future. The two Perspectives in this issue focus on the importance of metal oxide semiconductor interfaces in quantum dot sensitized solar cells and photocatalysis as a means to synthesize useful chemicals. Tian and Cao discuss how the large surface area of TiO2 and ZnO nanostructures, which facilitates QD loading, also provides an easy pathway for charge recombination and abundant surface defects, limiting overall power conversion efficiency. New approaches for surface modification of the metal oxide nanostructure and recent advances in improving the photoconversion efficiency are discussed. Augugliaro et al. present photocatalytic approaches for the conversion of noxious chemicals into high value chemical products. Although a majority of the published work in this area relates to the photocatalytic remediation of undesired compounds, the controlled photocatalytic conversion into desirable chemical products is also of importance. Dimethyl carbonate is also being considered as an alternative green organic solvent to enhance the solubility of organic compounds, thus overcoming the limitation posed by the low water solubility. The recovery of products is still a challenge for advancing this technology toward industrial applications. Prashant V. Kamat* University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, United States Jeffrey A. Christians Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, United States
author_names: Prashant V Kamat

Jeffrey A Christians
title: Solar Cells versus Solar Fuels: Two Different Outcomes.
venue: The journal of physical chemistry letters
year: 2015

abstract: Solar photovoltaic systems have become one of the most popular topics in the water management industry. Moreover, irrigation networks are water and energy hungry, and utility managers are likely to adapt water consumption (and consequently energy demand) to the hours in which there is energy availability. In countries such as Spain (with high irradiance values) solar energy is an available green alternative characterised by zero electricity costs and significantly lower environmental impact. In this work, several types of irrigation scheduled programmes (according to different irrigation sectors) that minimise the number of photovoltaic solar panels to be installed are studied; moreover, the effects of the variable costs linked to energy (energy and emissions costs) are presented. Finally, the effect of incorporating batteries for storing energy to protect the system against emergencies, such as unfavourable weather, is proposed. The irrigation hours available to satisfy water demands are limited by sunlight; they are also limited by the condition that the irrigation schedule type has to be rigid (predetermined rotation) and that the pressure at any node has to be above minimum pressure required by standards. A real case study is performed, and the results obtained demonstrate that there is no universal solution; this is because the portfolio of alternatives is based on investments for purchasing equipment at present and also on future energy savings (revenues) Apart from these two values, there is an economic value (equivalent discontinuous discount rate) which also influences the final results.
author_names: Miguel Pardo

Juan Manzano

Javier Valdes-Abellan

Ricardo Cobacho
title: Standalone direct pumping photovoltaic system or energy storage in batteries for supplying irrigation networks. Cost analysis.
venue: The Science of the total environment
year: 2019

abstract: A study was performed based on the design of a new wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to be built in Weesp, The Netherlands (about 46,000 Population Equivalents (PE) The conventional activated sludge plant was considered among the alternatives, with and without primary sedimentation. This pre treatment technique is considered a sustainability measure as it improves the energy balance of the WWTP. However, at the same time, the question arose about the cost effectiveness of this measure. The scope of the study was to assess whether other sustainability measures (like solar panels) can realise the same level of sustainability with lower costs. The outcome of the study indeed shows that, for a new WWTP, it is considerably cheaper to avoid primary sedimentation and focus on other measures like solar panels instead. This appeared not only to be the case for the scale of WWTP Weesp, but also for WWTPs with capacities higher than 500,000 PE. For existing WWTPs with primary sedimentation, the choice can be different as customisation is necessary.
author_names: Sara Giorgi

Berend Aldert Huigo Reitsma

H J F van Fulpen

Robert Berg

M Bechger
title: Primary sedimentation as a sustainability measure for newly built municipal wastewater treatment plants: too expensive?
venue: Water science and technology a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research
year: 2018

abstract: Solar photovoltaic based microgrids and nanogrids are becoming very popular in many developing countries due to lowering panels and balance of system costs. While many nanogrids (isolated houses with solar generation or small integrated community with very low power provisioning) have been popular, the need for interconnecting these for bidirectional power transactions is growing. This allows efficient resource utilization due to usage diversity. This work therefore analyses a 12/24 V to 380 V isolated boost converter suitable for many DC microgrid applications with bidirectional power flow requirements. The proposed converter has been evaluated for operation under different microgrid scenarios requiring an efficient bidirectional flow of power between a low voltage nanogrid (single house or a close neighborhood) and a high voltage microgrid (which interconnects several nanogrids) The converter is tested up to 250W with power flow in each direction with satisfactory results.
author_names: Ch Dost Muhammad Cheema

Khawaja Samad Shah

Hassan Abbas Khan

Nauman Ahmad Zaffar
title: Design and analysis of isolated boost converter for microgrid applications
venue: IECON 2017 43rd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
year: 2017

abstract: The share of renewable energy sources in energy production is growing steadily. Domestic homes can be equipped with solar panels, micro combined heat and power systems, batteries, and they can become adaptive consumers. They can also deliver energy to the grid and react to the energy supply. This paper presents a hybrid simulation approach for the analysis of a grid of domestic homes equipped with different technological options with respect to efficiency and costs. For energy storage and energy flows the system dynamics modeling paradigm is used whereas control decisions are modeled as statecharts. The highly intermittent solar irradiation and also the electric power and heat demands are implemented as stochastic models. The component based design allows for quick creation of new case studies. As examples, different homes with batteries, micro combined heat and power systems, or energy carrier carbazole as energy storage are analyzed.
author_names: Peter Bazan

Reinhard German
title: Hybrid simulation of renewable energy generation and storage grids
venue: Proceedings Title: Proceedings of the 2012 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC)
year: 2012

abstract: In renewable energy systems based on fuel cells, these can suffer deterioration derived from start up/stop cycles, load changes or run time operation. This paper analyses the viability of using a fuel cell system built from a high power single stack or from multiple low medium power stacks under fixed or variable power operation in a renewable energy system which includes Solar Panels, Wind turbines, Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells, Batteries and Electrolyzer. The aim of this comparison is to improve the system efficiency. To get this target, technical and economical optimization parameters have been taken into account in order to improve the fuel cell system lifetime, reduce operation and maintenance costs guarantying the power balance, the hydrogen stock and keeping the restrictions of the batteries' state of charge. For this purpose, a simulator has been developed in order to test different configurations of the fuel cell system. The configurations analysed are (A) a modular PEFC based on two 3.4 kW stacks working at 2 kW every stack, (B) a single 6.8 kW stack working at 4 kW power, (C) a single 6.8 kW stack working at variable power and (D) a single 6.8 kW stack working at two fixed levels (2 kW or 4 kW) depending on the demand.
author_names: Francisco Jose Vivas Fernandez

A De las Heras

F Segura

Jose Manuel Andujar Marquez
title: Configuration of a Fuel Cell system. Clues to choose between a modular or single stack based design
venue: IECON 2016 42nd Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
year: 2016

abstract: Due to the integration of renewable energies, the electricity grid is confronted with new peak situations that are caused by the new power plants. Beside these threats new metering technologies combined with information systems enable new pricing options that were not affordable for retail customers before. This paper contributes to the field by combining demand charging incentives with a feed in tariff for photovoltaics. Demand charges are a broadly used pricing concept for large scale and industrial customers but are not used for retail customers yet. In a simulation we first of all show the impact of solar plants on the grid. Secondly, we simulate the shift in electricity demand caused by a demand charge for retail customers. Our simulation shows that the solar panels reduce the purchased quantity of electricity while leaving the maximum peak unchanged. This leads to reduced revenues for grid operators without changing the costs. This negative impact can be improved by the demand charge for retail customers.
author_names: Yannic Domigall

Antonia Albani

Robert Winter
title: Effects of demand charging and photovoltaics on the grid
venue: IECON 2013 39th Annual Conference of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society
year: 2013

abstract: This study investigates the application of gravity gradient and aerodynamic torques in the attitude control and momentum management (ACMM) of the space station. Due to the large inertia and solar panels, environmental torque is significant enough in the ACMM in order to save fuel costs. Towards this end, the gravity gradient and the solar panels' aerodynamic models are established. The weighted state H controller is designed since the attitude control sub system is much slower than the momentum management sub system. Numerical results are shown to demonstrate the practicability of the environmental torque application and the effectiveness of the weighted state H technique.
author_names: Xingdan Wang

Yu Yao

Jian Xin Guo

Kai Liu

Yang Guo
title: Attitude control and momentum management of space station via weighted state H method
venue: Proceedings of the 33rd Chinese Control Conference
year: 2014