BIPV: Grid Parity on your Roof Multifunctional Thin-Film PV

L. Bilhaut, and A. Ricaud Screen Solar Savoie Technolac, BP 307, Bât. LAMA C, 17 av. du Lac Léman 73370 Le Bourget du Lac, FRANCE [email protected]

Study motivation  2000: PV installation ~ 9 €/Wp  2011: PV installation ~ 4 €/Wp thanks to  Feed-in tariffs  Technology improvement  Learning curve  European governments are decreasing FIT  The PV community needs to assess widespread deployment without any supportive schemes  Facilitated by  Inner nature of solar energy (based on a distributed power source)  Possibility to join the power generation with other functions  The PV community has to bring modules to end users in a way they become aesthetic for them  Building Integrated PV  Think in terms of €/m2 rather than in €/Wp

Thinking in €/m² rather than in €/Wp was the reasoning behind the first French Positive Energy Building, La Maison ZEN, built by Alain Ricaud in 2007, whose roof is fully covered with CIS modules on both sides

Description of approach  Model:  Based on figures of installed PV systems and forecasted growth  Discounted cash flow method  Location: Chambéry, France  Taking into account • Verdoorn learning coefficient effect • Slight increase in efficiency for each technology • Decreasing performance over the lifetime of the system • Different performance coefficient for each technology  Global cost  Modules  BOS  Installation  Maintenance  Revenue (generated electricity sold at grid parity end-user price: French price for domestic use (12 c€/kWh + 3% yearly increase)) Breakdown of installed PV systems by technology in €/m2 • Standard tiles cost takes into account production and installation; they yield no power • First Solar CdTe modules have the lowest production cost (around 60 €/m2 plus manufacturer margin)

 Production cost of PV for domestic roof-mounted installations in €/m2 for six technologies:  Very-high efficiency Si (BIDC)  Mono-crystalline Si  Multi-crystalline Si  CIGS (sputtering)  CdTe (CSVT)  Amorphous a-Si:H (PECVD)

Results  2010: No PV installation would generate net revenue without the FIT  2016: global costs of CdTe, CIGS and VHE-based installation < 70 €/m²  more benefit than tiles / Sibased technologies remain not a good choice for BIPV  2020 : all modules are more advantageous than standard tiles thanks to:  PV cost reduction (volume effect)  Efficiency improvement  Electricity price increase  FIT won’t be needed any more; people will consume the locally produced electricity  Grid parity should be reached first by VHE-Si, followed by CIGS, CdTe, mono-crystalline Si, multicrystalline Si and last by amorphous silicon

Global cost/revenue of a PV installation over a 25-year lifetime for installations made in 2010, 2016 and 2020

Conclusion  As anticipated by a few analysts, CIGS and VHE-Si technologies yield the highest global revenues in 2020  they should be chosen as premium materials to be developed for BIPV application  Remain to be assessed :  Carbon footprint for each technology  Potential for manufacturing cost reduction  In-depth analysis of CIGS deposition methods shows that printed CIGS yields the best potential to decrease module cost for giga-scale production, so grid-parity could be reached sooner

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