The EU-funded project CrystalClear has greatly improved the processes required for large-scale solar electricity production. CrystalClear has addressed some of the principle factors holding solar research back and has identified promising solutions. The consortium of European companies and research groups has pooled its talents to improve the efficiency of silicon solar cells, demonstrated the sustainability of solar electricity and defined ways to reduce production costs; all integral to meeting EU sustainable energy goals.
CrystalClear set out to devise processes to produce highly efficient,
low-cost silicon solar modules, and to date has been particularly
successful in doing so. Consortium researchers have been able
to increase the conversion efficiency of large-area multicrystalline
silicon solar cells to a record level of 18 percent. The ability
to produce efficient cells is an important factor in the uptake
of solar technology.
|Solar electricity is inching closer to consumer electricity prices.|
© Georg Slickers
Cell efficiency can range from 6 to 30 percent with current
commercial standards at approximately 14 to 16 percent. Researchers
were able to produce the encouraging results through the design
of extremely thin solar cells made from high-purity silicon
starting material. They were sure to employ production processes
within industry capacities to ensure easy integration into other
methods already in use.
Cost being an oft cited prohibitive factor, efficient cells
translate into improved cost effective energy solutions. CrystalClear
participants carried out detailed cost calculations showing
that the technologies now successfully under development can
be produced at around €1 per watt of module power, which
cuts other current production model costs in half. Consortium
experts have drafted a technology roadmap that outlines the
steps required to arrive at the relatively inexpensive unit
Another hurdle faced by solar electricity is the so-called energy
payback time, the time it takes to produce more energy than
was consumed during production and installation. A common misconception
charges that solar cells rarely produce more energy than is
required for their production. CrystalClear has proven through
careful analysis of solar electricity's environmental
impact that today's systems have an energy payback time
of merely two years for southern Europe and just over three
years in regions further north.
Their studies show that these statistics have the potential of being further reduced by up to 50 percent if current technology trends continue. The energy payback times are even more impressive considering that these cells have a 25-year lifetime.
CrystalClear, an Integrated Project funded in FP6, has shown
that solar electricity is highly sustainable and indeed effective
in reducing CO2-emissions. The project began in 2004 and will
wrap up research at the end of 2008. It consists of partners
from Spain, Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium,
and carries a total budget of €28 million with over half
coming from the EU.