Action 13106 - Photovoltaic Solar Electricity (SOLAREC)

What is the energy life of photovoltaic solar modules?

The established European targets for the implementation of solar photovoltaic energy in the European Member States by 2010 and those anticipated beyond require a profound knowledge of the technology in terms of science, manufacturing, deployment, operation and integration issues. The SOLAREC Action will provide the scientific and technological know-how to assess the progress, and develop appropriate verification methods through international standards. With the harmonized development of resource assessment and verification tools with wide geographical coverage in the framework of international agreements (e.g. the International Energy Agency), this Action provides scientific methods on which community policy can be monitored. The targets for large-scale deployment towards 2020 must be established on the basis of sound technological assessment which will be based on the methods and agreements developed in this Action.

Action SOLAREC provides scientific and technical support to the verification and implementation of photovoltaic solar energy in Europe and supports European renewable energy strategies in other key geographic areas. The reference laboratory operating under this Action performs a crucial role in resolving the technical and scientific issues raised by the large-scale implementation of photovoltaic generators (5% of European electricity supply by 2020). The Action will determine performance and longevity of photovoltaic technologies by calibration and the use of new accelerated ageing techniques. This will enable the photovoltaic economy to establish in a harmonized way the energy performance of power plants throughout their life-time. The Action will also perform research on ultra-efficient solar cells, and support the development of such new technologies by performance verification and calibration. Better assessments of solar resources will feedback into cost- calculations on a regional scale and into modeling of dispatch issues in European grid networks.

 

Specific objectives of the Action

• Verification of the viability and applicability of the main radiometric traceability methods for crystalline silicon solar cells.

• Provide the European community with the means to verify research and evelopment progress in new photovoltaic conversion efficiencies.

• Establishment of a sample reference set of new technology solar modules covering the most advanced thin film and innovative silicon based products for ageing.

• Application of ageing and screening tests for new and conventional materials.

• Integration of performance models of thin film and innovative silicon materials performance surfaces to develop generalised approaches to energy rating.

• Establishment of a system performance test bed for analysis of integration issues in final energy production.

• Development of a direct input link between the satellite derived solar flux and the high resolution interactive PVGIS system enabling analysis of the temporal and geographic distribution of the potential energy flux from solar photovoltaic systems.

• Application of the energy rating models based on temperature and irradiance factors derived from PVGIS and the physical module parameters, as well as determination of average and peak temperature profiles over the European continent in the end-of-life testing of photovoltaic modules.

• Development of the experimental facilities for the implementation of the measurement techniques for multi-junction and high efficiency solar cells.

 

The Action maintains and operates the Large Facility ESTI (European Solar Test Installation) as part of it's core competence. ESTI is an international accredited laboratory both for lifetime testing and for calibration. This double competence makes ESTI a unique research facility capable of transforming research in to application.

More information can be found on the Action 13106 web pages.

 

Contact info

Ewan Dunlop

Tel: (+39) 0332 789090   E-mail: ewan.dunlop(at)ec.europa.eu

 

Main customers

- DG Energy and Transport

- DG Research and Technological Development

- DG Enterprise and Industry

- DG Environment

- International Energy Agency (IEA)

- International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)

- European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC)

- European Photovoltaic Research Laboratories

- Photovoltaic Industry

 

EU Legislation and Documents supported by this Action

- Directive 2001/77/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2001 on the promotion of electricity from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market [Official Journal L 283 of 27.10.2001].

- Commission Communication of 7 December 2005 "The support of electricity from renewable energy sources" [COM(2005) 627 final - Official Journal C 49 of 28 February 2006].