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Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII- 94
Impact of solar
system price on
payback time of the
purchase as a
function of the
value of the
electricity
generated, using a
discount rate of 5%.
The cheaper the
Solar System, the
faster the economic
payback.
The higher the
regular electricity
rate (x axis), the
faster the payback.
Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII- 98
Sustainability Attributes
• Solar energy uses range from 1-10 kW -scale heating and cooling
systems up to 10-200 MW-scale, CSP
• Capturing, storing, and converting solar energy into usable heat or
electricity is not necessarily a sustainable energy system.
• The hardware and space it takes to concentrate, convert, and store this
intermittent and dilute energy resource carries its own environmental
and economic burden.
• It takes about two years of operation for the silicon PV collector to
recover the amount of energy that was needed to manufacture it.
• Solar hot-water heaters and passive Trombe walls recover their
embedded energy content quickly.
• Some PV materials, such as CdTe and CulnSe2 or GaAs are toxic, and
the processes associated with recovering, purifying, and utilizing these
materials carry their own impacts.
Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII-100
• In the 1970s and 1980s tax incentives and growing customer demand
led to many new companies; unfortunately, most were not able to
produce a reliable product.
• In 1984, over 250 manufacturers in the US sold over 1.5 million m2 of
collectors, but by 1990, over 200 had gone out of business
• Poor choices of materials, inadequate control systems, and shoddy
workmanship on-site led to frequent failures and distrust in solar
technology.
• Israel, Australia, and Cyprus have seen growing markets and increased
penetration of solar technology because of a high-quality solar
resource and favorable policies
Sustainable Energy 332:402, P. Panayotatos, Spring ‘10:
Unit XIII Solar Energy slide# XIII-102