Terawatt-scale photovoltaics: Trajectories and challenges

Haegel, Nancy M.; Margolis, Robert; Buonassisi, Tonio; Feldman, David; Froitzheim, Armin; Garabedian, Raffi; Green, Martin; Glunz, Stefan; Henning, Hans -Martin; Holder, Burkhard; Kaizuka, Izumi; Kroposki, Benjamin; Matsubara, Koji; Niki, Shigeru; Sakurai, Keiichiro; Schindler, Roland A.; Tumas, William; Weber, Eicke R.; Wilson, Gregory; Woodhouse, Michael; Kurtz, Sarah

doi:10.1126/science.aal1288

Terawatt-scale photovoltaics: Trajectories and challenges

Journal Article · Thu Apr 13 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aal1288· OSTI ID:1352502

Haegel, Nancy M. ^[1]; Margolis, Robert ^[1]; Buonassisi, Tonio ^[2]; Feldman, David ^[1]; Froitzheim, Armin ^[3]; Garabedian, Raffi ^[4]; Green, Martin ^[5]; Glunz, Stefan ^[6]; Henning, Hans -Martin ^[7]; Holder, Burkhard ^[8]; Kaizuka, Izumi ^[9]; Kroposki, Benjamin ^[1]; Matsubara, Koji ^[10]; Niki, Shigeru ^[11]; Sakurai, Keiichiro ^[11]; Schindler, Roland A. ^[12]; Tumas, William ^[1]; Weber, Eicke R. ^[13]; Wilson, Gregory ^[1]; Woodhouse, Michael ^[1] more »

National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
SolarWorld Industries Thuringen GmbH, Arnstadt (Germany)
First Solar, Tempe, AZ (United States)
Univ. of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW (Australia)
"Solar Cells - Development and Characterization" Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg (Germany)
Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg (Germany)
VDE, Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
RTS Corp., Tokyo (Japan)
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Fukushima (Japan)
AIST, Tsukuba (Japan)
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy System (ISE), Freiburg (Germany)
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Freiburg (Germany); Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS), Create Tower (Singapore)

The annual potential of solar energy far exceeds the world's total energy consumption. However, the vision of photovoltaics (PVs) providing a substantial fraction of global electricity generation and total energy demand is far from being realized. What technical, infrastructure, economic, and policy barriers need to be overcome for PVs to grow to the multiple terawatt (TW) scale? Here, we assess realistic future scenarios and make suggestions for a global agenda to move toward PVs at a multi-TW scale.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1352502

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA--5K00-66779

Journal Information:: Science, Journal Name: Science Journal Issue: 6334 Vol. 356; ISSN 0036-8075

Publisher:: AAASCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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