To increase the capability and production of photovoltaic energy, a group of scientist built the blueprint of their future plan. This plan is led by U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory with its counterparts from Japan and Germany.
According to Eurekalert, scientists are focused on the assessment of the photovoltaic cell to reach production rate at multi-terawatt scale. This assessment could help to outline a potential route to increase the demand of renewable energies according to world's needs.
In March 2016, fifty-seven experts attend a meeting of the Global Alliance of Solar Energy Research Institutes (GA-SERI) held in Germany. There they discussed the policy initiatives and the technical advancement to expand photovoltaic energy in next couple of decades. Regarding the subject, they published a paper named Terawatt-Scale Photovoltaic: Trajectories and Challenges in Science journal.
In fact, Photovoltaic energy with twenty percent of the new installation is produced only one percent of the global electricity in 2015. The International Solar Alliance has set a target to produce around 3 terawatts of additional solar power capacity by 2030. However, it needs more technical improvement to extend the current installed capacity of 71 GW.
Previously, most of the optimistic predictions provide inadequate representation from the actual deployment of PV over the last decade. However, GA-SERI paper discusses a more feasible trajectory to install 5-10 terawatts of PV capacity by 2030. Additionally, this target should be achievable with constant technical improvements with an affordable cost of the photovoltaic system.
During the meeting, GA-SERI experts pointed at five technical challenges which should be overcome to achieve 5-10 terawatts of Photovoltaic energy. Firstly, it included a reduction in the cost of PV while also improving the performance of solar modules. Secondly, a drop in the cost of and time required to expand manufacturing and installation capacity.
The next one is to move more flexible grids that can handle high levels of PV through increased load shifting, energy storage, or transmission. Moreover, the fourth one is focused on increasing demand for electricity by using more for transportation and heating or cooling. However, the last one is continued progress in storage for energy generated by solar power.
