Counterpart
Prof. Abdel Mottaleb, Director, Photoenergy
Center, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt, Tel:
+202-4845940 or +2012-2169584, Fax: +202-4845941 or +202-6347683, Email: solar@photoenergy.org
OR solar@link.net
Background
All renewable forms of energy including sun,
wind and biomass will be an increasingly important source of future energy.
Photovoltaic technology provides a reliable and in many cases a cost effective
way of harvesting solar energy. While a number of developing countries are
reaping industrial and social benefits from the deployment of PV technology,
many countries are still not gaining significant benefits from the extensive
solar energy resources that are available. In order to exploit this resource, it
is essential to increase research, development and commercialization capacity,
increase market awareness in developing regions, and undertake prudent capital
investments to increase the viability of PV applications and especially PV Water
Pumping Systems.
The cost of PV systems has been a long-standing issue for PV applications,
however, in recent times, the cost has decreased due to improvements in the
efficiency of cells, improved manufacturing techniques and the larger market
size. The trend is for Photovoltaic systems to become quite competitive with the
conventional power supplies and have an increasingly important role in
electricity generation in the future especially in isolated zones. PV based
systems are currently commercially competitive for a number of niche
applications, but not for the daily essential needs of millions of people.
Increasing the market size, producing cheaper cells and new technological
developments will furthermore increase the competitiveness of PV technologies in
these areas of North Africa and the Middle East.
The viability of PV applications is also dependent on the skills available, and
the planning tools that are accessible to the system designer. Cost effective
solutions need to be capable of providing a balance between resource
availability, generation systems, storage and other balance of system items.
Life cycle cell costing is essential in determining the most cost-effective
solution of a PV system. Reliable sources of cells and PV modules, that are of a
good quality and competitively priced is a fundamental prerequisite to
increasing the utilization of PVs in Water Pumping Systems. Financial packaging
will also become an important focal point for widespread replication.
| Justification |
| The successful and
sustainable application of photovoltaic cells and panels requires the
application of specific knowledge and expertise during the project life
cycle i.e. during the planning, design, production selection, quality
control and testing of modules and cells. Relevant research must be applied to improve the cells knowledge base, in order to reduce cell production and module costs, as almost 50% of the cost of PV systems come from the modules i.e. in cells manufacturing and related material costs. Therefore, if we need an item in which we can try and save money on, this is definitely an area to start. Furthermore, practice is required on how to make the right selection of cells and modules and then on how to transfer this technology to ensure module cost reductions. The application of photovoltaic system technologies must also take into account system optimization to ensure cost-effective PV modules. Market knowledge and module market development activities are also critical parameters in establishing sustainable industrial capacity on different production levels. By working on the above areas and reducing costs of cells and modules, PV technology can solve many problems worldwide. The world currently has approximately 2 billion people who do not have access to electricity by way of either electric fan, radio or refrigerator or who do not have the minimum quantity of water during a day for their survival. It is true that the cost of PV technology has been a long-standing issue in developing countries, but it also seems that on the other hand, technology itself is a long-standing issue. In the past, there was a lack of new cells production processes, due perhaps to the limitation of the silicon cell efficiency or rather due to the market request that doesn’t ask for high homogeneous quality cell production. However, the forecast of the PV module demand by 2003 will be double of what the product is today (i.e. 442 MWp in 2003). Developing countries that want to move towards this new technology have to face this problem of cost. In addition, due to the development of a national PV programme in the industrial countries (Italy, France, Austria, Germany, UK, Japan and USA), we know there is a lack of raw material (silicon) for cells. As far as efficiency is concerned, the figures (14% in Lab; 10% on the field) have been almost the same for 40 years. Furthermore, in developing countries, the negative effect of the temperature on the efficiency of the cells is a heavy penalty. In these places where PV is more necessary and more productive for the elevated insulation, the costs are high. Experts also foresee an important silicon shortage problem as a result of the increasing demand. While the PV silicon production will be dependent on the electronic industry discard there can be no module cost reduction chances. Therefore the cost of modules will be difficult to reduce if we don’t by-pass the problem of the silicon shortage. One solution to solve this problem could be to reduce, for a given quantity of generated power, the needed quantity of silicon. By concentrating PV technology, we can use up to 300 times less silicon quantity and use the suns concentrating reflectors. Consequently, in this solution, it is obvious that we have to cool the cell to a suitable temperature so we will solve the negative temperature effect. Other possible solutions could be: · The utilization of thin films III-V compounds, · The exploitation of the thermal spectre with a suitable PV material, · The use of multi-layers junctions, or · The simultaneous use of different type of cells suitable to exploit the beam splitting technology in large plants. However, the word is now research & development laboratories that will make the state of the art in this very complicated but very promising field. Obviously by doing this, the future cell production and its final configuration will be totally different than what we are used to today. As mentioned previously, in regions where the remote areas are not connected to the electrical grid, there is a strong and increasing demand for the technologies related to Photovoltaic systems and especially to water pumping systems. ICS, with its access to laboratories, and its international network clearly provides an ideal mechanism for developing relevant skills and diffusing among international industrial communities, interesting research issues and building industrial capacity. ICS is constantly trying to build a database of information on equipment performance and quality, manufacture, system design, application and performance to permit process optimisation. |
| Objectives | ||
|
Results
It seems clear that in Egypt and in all the
Arab Region there is a huge necessity of water. This need is vital for people in
remote rural areas where neither aqueducts nor electric grids are available. The
only viable, economic, decisive and environmentally effective way is the
adoption of PV systems, that are useful both for lightening and Water Pumping
/Desalination. The design of the PV system must be performed by expert people
well skilled in PV Technology, that have good practice in managing and running
plants: the first important step is the knowledge of the exact local water needs
during the year and the use of this water. The second is the knowledge of the
water source and of the environmental conditions, and then the knowledge of the
design rules for Photovoltaics: with the same PV array, only choosing the right
tilting angle you can modify the water supply during the year according to the
specific needs. The technology is well consolidated (it is enough to choose
reliable components) and the potential market is very large (8MWp at least). The
considerable importance of the local and regional market, and the possibility to
reduce prices (eliminating the importation duties) of PV modules by local
production can suggest to perform a feasibility study of a Cells/Modules Factory
to be installed in Egypt or in one other country of the region (e.g. Tunisia has
already got a good PV research tradition). Egypt should undertake a serious
debate between involved Institutions on the use and benefit of PV technology,
taking also into account the environmental advantages against pollution and
providing a drastic reduction in the importation duties and taxes on PV
components (unless these duties have to protect indoor components, the
Government intends to produce widely for the large potential interior market).
Then the decision makers must be duly informed in order to establish a Renewable
Energy National Policy and find the capitals to be invested in PV Research and
PV applications that are already cost effective. Many participants think that
UNIDO-ICS should afford the cost of the Feasibility Study. The MCEET could give
an important contribution in experience and man-hours. Many participants
reminded that the letter 'to Ministry' must be sent as soon as possible.
For further information, please send an e-mail to htnm@ics.trieste.it