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Title: Terawatt-scale photovoltaics: Trajectories and challenges

Journal Article · · Science
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  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  2. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  3. SolarWorld Industries Thuringen GmbH, Arnstadt (Germany)
  4. First Solar, Tempe, AZ (United States)
  5. Univ. of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW (Australia)
  6. "Solar Cells - Development and Characterization" Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg (Germany)
  7. Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg (Germany)
  8. VDE, Frankfurt am Main (Germany)
  9. RTS Corp., Tokyo (Japan)
  10. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Fukushima (Japan)
  11. AIST, Tsukuba (Japan)
  12. Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy System (ISE), Freiburg (Germany)
  13. 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.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1352502
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5K00-66779
Journal Information:
Science, Vol. 356, Issue 6334; ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher:
AAASCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 253 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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