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TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN PHOTOVOLTAIC

ENERGY SYSTEMS

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TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN PHOTOVOLTAIC
ENERGY SYSTEMS
Ramesh Oruganti1 Ted Spooner & Faz Rahman
Dept. of Elect. and Computer Engineering School of Elect. Engineering & Telecommunications
National University of Singapore University of New South Wales, Sydney
Singapore Australia

1.0 Introduction

That the on-going climate change is due to the release of green house gases (GHG) as a result of
human activities is no longer seen to be under dispute. According to the IPCC (Intergovenmental
Panel on Climate Change)[1],

‘Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since mid-20th century is very likely
due to the observed increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations.’

Considering the extremely large amounts of cuts required in the usage of fossil fuels, a multi-
pronged approach with simultaneous actions taken in different areas is known to be very necessary.
Increasing the contributions of climate friendly renewable energy sources, in particular solar
photovoltaic and wind energy, significantly, in the mix of energy sources required to meet the
current and future global energy demands is one of the key strategies advocated to achieve a few of
the ‘stabilization wedges’ [2] in order to reduce the global GHG emissions.

As may be seen from Fig. 1, which shows the cumulative installed photovoltaic electrical power in
several of the member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA) [3], PV installations are
currently undergoing rapid exponential growth. The total in Fig. 1 represents a substantial part of the
total worldwide installed PV capacity and is thus indicative of worldwide PV growth. The grid-tied
PV systems form a much larger proportion of the installed PV systems than the stand-alone systems.

The technology drivers which motivate the development of a particular renewable energy source can
be classified into four areas (Fig. 2):

1. Environmental impact including safety and health

2. Performance including safety and health aspects related to performance
3. State, national and international policies
4. Cost, price and other economic aspects

Obviously, this classification is quite broad and the different areas influence each other in several
ways. For example, public policy can influence the way renewable energy is priced. But the
classification does serve to provide an overall framework for viewing the various drivers of PV
technology.

In this paper, we discuss the first two drivers, namely, environmental impact and performance and
their effect on photovoltaic (PV) technology. The focus will be mainly on flat-panel PV systems
which are currently more prevalent than concentration PV systems.

As shown in Fig. 2, the driver of environmental impact can be further sub-divided into 1) resources
and their continued availability, 2) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions & release of (other) pollutants
and 3) energy payback time (EPBT). Likewise, the driver of system performance can be further
subdivided into 1) cell and module performance, 2) balance of system (BOS) performance and 3)

1
Ramesh Oruganti was a visiting faculty member at the School of Electrical Engineering and
Telecommunications, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, when this study was carried out.
network issues. These technological challenges provide opportunities for further R&D and
technological advancement in PV area.

Fig. 1: Cumulative installed PV capacity in selected countries -

based on data from [3]

Fig. 2: Classification of PV Technology Drivers

2.0 Environmental Impact

As mentioned earlier, for renewable energy systems, the issues of importance related to
environmental impact are energy pay back time, GHG emission, emission of pollutants and resource
availability. Each one of these drivers will be discussed in greater details below.

Resource availability:

Regarding the issue of resource availability, ref. [4] issued by US Department of Energy concludes
that resource constraint will not be a problem in reaching a PV growth target of 20 GW/year for the
US. This is true for commodity materials, such as steel, glass, and concrete needed for the
packaging, system wiring and other purposes. The availability of specialty materials required in the
manufacture of photovoltaic cells will depend on the PV technology that is assumed to be adopted.
Even here, for silicon based technologies, both wafer based and thin-film based, material availability
is not expected to be a problem. Problems of material availability can possibly occur in the case of
thin-film technologies involving scarce elements, such as indium and selenium (for example,
CuInSe2 material) and tellurium (CdTe material). This is particularly likely to happen if PV growth
and usage rates reach very high levels. These materials occur in low concentrations and are typically
extracted as by-products of mining more common metals, such as Al (bauxite), Zn and Cu. Thus,
their availability in large quantities for the photovoltaic industry will be very much dependent on the
demand and extraction of the more common materials with which they occur [5]. This problem may
perhaps be mitigated in future due to technological advances, such as use of less amount of such
scarce materials, reclaiming of wasted material during cell fabrication and material substitution in
the coming years [4].

Emission of GHGs and pollutants:

The emission of pollutants in the manufacturing process of PV technology is minimal and is mainly
due to the use of energy during manufacture [6]. Ref. [7] presents a study of life cycle emissions of
PV systems based on different commercial PV technologies, viz., monocrystalline silicon,
multicrystalline silicon, ribbon silicon and thin-film cadmium telluride (CdTe). The emissions were
found in all the cases to be ‘insignificant in comparison to the emissions that they replace when
introduced in average European and U.S. grids’. A surprising finding is that the life cycle cadmium
emission for the thin-film CdTe technology is among the lowest in the energy options considered
including fossil fuels and other PV technologies (for the system studied).

Fig. 3 from [6] compares the GHG emissions from various low carbon energy options based on data
from several sources. As may be noticed, the life cycle GHG emissions from PV installations (Cd-Te
and multi-Si technologies are shown here) are significantly lower than from a few of the major
options, for eg., fossil fuel combined with carbon capture and sequestration. However, compared to
two other major energy options available, namely, nuclear power and wind power, the GHG
emissions due to PV technologies are somewhat higher. The PV technology, however, does not have
the waste disposal problem that attends the nuclear option (end-of-life recycling of the PV materials
is a potentially practical and strong option). Also, potential for application of PV technology is large,
even larger than wind energy [6]. The GHG emissions due to future PV technologies are expected to
be lower and can be comparable to that achieved by current wind energy technologies (Fig. 3).

Energy Pay Back Times:

Energy pay back time (EPBT) is another issue to be considered with all renewable energy resources.
It is a major driver for PV technology development also. The EPBT of a renewable energy system is
the time needed in years for the energy invested in manufacturing and installing the system to be
recovered. There are a number of EPBT studies of PV systems in literature, for example [6][8][9].
The estimates differ significantly based on the technological assumptions made and the installation
locations considered.

The starting material in most cases for crystalline Si technologies is rejected material from the global
microelectronics industry. The purification levels required for such ‘electronic-grade’ silicon is
much higher than what is actually required for photovoltaic manufacture. This can result in higher
energy being used in PV manufacture than is really needed. With the increasing volume of
photovoltaic installations, PV modules may be expected to be made in future directly from ‘solar
grade’ silicon material, resulting in lower overall energy requirements.

Fig. 4 shows the estimated EPBTs [6] for roof-top PV installations using different silicon PV
technologies at two locations in Europe, one in southern Europe (annual irradiation of 1700 kWh/m2)
and the other in middle Europe (annual irradiation of 1000 kWh/m2). It may be noted from Fig. 4
that for Si PV technologies, the pay back period is currently between 1.6 years and 2.2 years when
the irradiation level is 1700 kWh/m2/year. The pay back time range increases to between 2.7 years
and 3.6 years if the insolation is only 1000 kWh/m2/year. For thin film technologies, the EPBT can
be expected to be even lower. Fig. 5 [8] compares the pay back times of thin film CdTe PV
installations with those of multi-crystalline technology. For thin-film technologies, the current
estimated pay back period is around a low value of 1 year.

Fig. 3: Comparison of GHG emissions of different energy supply options, PV system

installed in Southern Europe [5]

In general, the attractiveness of PV systems to be considered as one of the major renewable energy
options will be enhanced significantly if the EPBT values are brought down even further. It may be
expected that the EPBTs will indeed become lower than the current estimates, in future, due to
technology developments [6][8].

One factor that may be noticed in Fig. 4 is the low values of the EPBT attributed to the inverter sub-
system. It appears that detailed life-cycle studies of the PV inverters are not easily available. In view
of the limited life times of typical PV inverters (of the order of a few years), further study of the
energy pay back times of PV inverters may be called for. Furthermore, as PV penetration becomes
deeper, energy storage will become more and more necessary even in grid-tied systems. The EPBTs
of such systems with large energy storage (for instance using batteries) will be significantly higher
than systems without energy storage and this must be factored in.

According to [10], the EPBTs of Concentration Photovoltaic (CPV) systems are possibly even lower
than those of typical Flat-panel Photovoltaic (FPV) systems for high volumes of production. For
example, as per [11], the EPBT values of a CPV system with a concentration ratio of 500 and using
III-V multijunction solar cells (‘FLATCON’-type) can be expected to be in the range of 8 to 16
months depending on the installation location. Also, in this case, the main contributor to the energy
payback time is the steel used for the required sun tracking system thereby indicating that the focus
of reducing the EPBT must be on the complete system and not just on the solar cell.

3.0 Performance Issues

The various aspects of concern with regard to performance can be divided into as being related to
cell/module technologies or BOS (balance of system) technologies. These will be reviewed briefly in
this section.
 M

Fig.4: Energy Pay Back Times for PV systems based on different crystalline silicon
technologies at two different locations [5]

Fig. 5: Energy Pay Back Times for PV systems based on thin-film CdTe technology
compared with that based on multi-crystalline Si technology [8]

Cell/Module Technologies:

Photovoltaic cells and modules form the core of a photovoltaic system. In order for PV to be
become an important player in the mix of energy technologies required to reduce the usage of fossil
fuels in electricity generation, it is necessary that efficient, durable and low cost cell/module
technologies which meet the environmental concerns of resource availability, low emission of GHG
and pollutants and energy payback time mentioned earlier are developed.
The most commonly used cell technologies have so far been wafer based single crystalline silicon (s-
Si) or multicrystalline silicon (m-Si) technologies or ribbon based silicon technologies. These use
thicker materials and are inherently more expensive. According to [5],

‘It seems unlikely that wafer or ribbon-based technology could ever reach such low costs due both to
high material content and the large number of pieces that need to be handled, measured inventoried
and interconnected.’

On the other hand, thin-film technologies use less material and are more suited to module
production. However, thin-film cells have poorer efficiencies, which may be expected to improve in
the future. If photovoltaic systems are to deliver energy at low enough prices to compete in the
wholesale electricity and energy markets, then the technology should be capable of high efficiency
and be non-toxic, based on abundant materials and also durable [5].

Balance of System:

The balance of system components include the mounting frames, the wiring and connectors, fuses
and other protective devices, battery and other energy storage devices and power conversion circuits,
such as maximum power point tracker (MPPT), battery charger and grid-tied or stand-alone inverter.
In this section, some of the critical technical issues in some of these system components are
highlighted. Ref. [13] provides a good review of the overall status of the reliability of both PV
modules and balance of system components.

DC System Safety Issues:

The output of a PV array is DC and this poses special problems to be addressed both in terms of
design and installation. An early paper [13] has identified many of the failure mechanisms and safety
hazards associated with PV systems. These are listed below [13].

1) The system is always energized when exposed to even low levels of light.
2) Ground faults in the photovoltaic modules can endanger personnel and damage equipment.
3) Hot-spot cell heating can result in a large amount of energy being dissipated in a single cell.
4) Overcurrent protection is harder to provide than in conventional plants.
5) In-circuit arcs in the photovoltaic modules can pose a fire or safety hazard.

Though these issues are well-known for a long time, economical and effective technological
solutions are still in the process of being developed.

Of these (1), (2) and (3) can be resolved through good engineering design and practice and
adherence to existing standards. System safety is particularly important in residential roof-top PV
systems with high DC system voltages. With age, the installation can deteriorate and PV modules
and systems can develop leakage currents [14]. This can be potentially hazardous unless adequate
fault protection is built into the system.

The fault currents in PV system are typically low since PV arrays are inherently current limited. The
shortcircuit currents are also dependent on the insolation. Due to this, normal overcurrent protection
methods will not be effective. In addition, as pointed out in [15], PV arrays are normally used
together with battery storage or with the ac grid. This requires that protection scheme must be
capable of providing adequate system protection with two or more sources of varying fault current
capabilities feeding the system.

Being a DC power system, potential for sustained arcing exists in a PV array even at comparatively
low voltages. Such arcs can be between positive and negative terminals of an array or part of an
array, or between a terminal and ground or in connections along the series paths [17]. They can
occur in various locations in the system, ‘cell connection within the module, transition conductive
strip box, junction box connectors, plug-in connectors and switches and inverter connection’ [16].
Ref. [17] presents an arc detection circuit based on sensing the high frequency noise generated by the
presence of any DC side arc. It is imperative that the potential for DC side arcing is minimized if not
eliminated in PV systems, through reliable and inexpensive arc detection schemes or by other means.

As high as 50% of the several systems surveyed by the authors of [18], ranging from 1kW to 250
kW, were reported to have ‘poor safety, performance and durability’ record. PV systems are
expected to have long life of more than 20 years. This requires that both the modules and the BOS be
properly designed and installed so that premature system failure and degradation of performance be
avoided. ‘More importantly, however, is the fact that some BOS (both PV-unique and other) failures
may create safety hazards that could endanger human life or destroy property [18]’. Thus, there is
also a need for the development and strict enforcement of design, installation and maintenance
standards. This is especially important as PV systems become more and more common and are being
installed where trained personnel may not always be present.

Issues Related to Inverter and Other Power Processors:

Various power converters, such as an MPPT, a charger and/or inverter may be used in a PV system.
In simple, grid-tied systems, the MPPT and the charger may not be used.

Though efficiency and cost/kW continue to be important drivers in power processors, perhaps the
most critical factor is the need to achieve improved inverter reliability. While the average life
duration of PV modules have reached 20 years and more, the inverters are typically guaranteed for 5
years and are generally considered to be the weak link undermining a PV system’s long term
reliability. According to [19], the ‘mean time to first failure’ (MTFF) for an inverter is estimated to
be five years and there is a need to develop the ‘next generation’ inverter with an MTFF of at least
ten years.

Fig. 6 (Erge, Th. et al. 1998 - see [20]) indicates that the biggest cause of system failures in the case
of Germany’s 1000 roofs programme was the inverter and thus confirms the poor reliability of this
PV component. (Note: The data collected did not discriminate between major failures and small
system malfunctions.) Though the failure rates show a reduction with time due to the gaining of
experience, the data does indicate that inverter failure is indeed a critical issue in PV systems. The
actual low reliability of the inverters contrasts sharply with the theoretically expected 50 year mean
time between failures (Wilk 1997 – see [20]) for an inverter not exposed to excessive temperatures.

The concern with regard to DC wiring and safety discussed in the previous subsection can be
addressed through the use of a number of modular inverters in an installation instead of a single
centralized inverter. This also will reduce the problems due to module mismatches due to shading
and other causes. AC modules, where a low power, grid-connected inverter caters to one (or a few)
module(s), have been proposed to mitigate shading and other mismatching problems and to avoid
DC wiring problems [21]. Standardization of the individual module allows flexibility in system
design and future expansion. The ac module is typically mounted on the underside of the PV module
itself. Due to this, the module operates in a more demanding environment than other types of PV
inverters. Furthermore, due to the use of many inverters, system reliability and efficiency can be
poor and costs (both initial and maintenance costs) can be high. PV string inverters, wherein one
inverter per string in an array is used has been suggested and used as a compromise between using
several module inverters and a single centralized inverter [22].

Ref. [19] discusses the issues to be addressed and the approaches to be taken for improving the
reliability of the inverter. This includes standardization and modularization of inverters through the
use of a ‘building block’ approach, adoption of mature manufacturing practices and testing methods.
Furthermore, the heat loss in the inverter has to be reduced through the use of advanced
semiconductor devices and circuits using low-loss switching techniques. Reliability of electrolytic
capacitors is another critical area requiring technological improvement. Advanced packaging and
interconnection technologies must be developed and adopted for improving inverter reliability.

Fig. 6: Yearly failure rate of PV systems in the ‘1000 roofs’ programme in

Germany (Erge, Th., et al. – see [20]),

Network Issues:

The major growth in PV systems is in grid-connected systems. Proper attention must be paid to
power system level issues when several PV systems are connected to the electrical grid [23]. This is
in common with other distributed generation resources, such as wind or micro-turbines. Some of the
important technical challenges that arise are discussed below.

Problems arise when several PV generators simultaneously feed energy in to the system [23],
particularly during periods of high solar insolation. These have been receiving considerable attention
recently. Some of the problems are

• Introduction of unwanted harmonics and EMI noise in to the power system due to the switching
power converters in the PV systems.
• Severe voltage rise can occur in the distribution lines. In many cases, solar PV and wind energy
systems will feed power back at unity power factor. With large grid-penetration of PV energy
resources (and likewise with wind and other energy resources), it is very necessary to provide
reactive power support, either separately or through the power electronic converter of the PV
system itself.
• Systems resources, such as distribution transformers can be overloaded and be unable to handle
the high amount of reverse energy flow.
• Fault protection schemes can be compromised due to the new added presence of PV generation
sources within the power system.
• Personnel safety considerations demand that adequate ‘anti-islanding’ measures be incorporated
into PV inverter systems to avoid continued operation and connection of PV systems to the grid
 in the event when the grid has been switched off. This matter has been addressed for quite
sometime now.

A major issue that has arisen is the intermittent nature of the PV (as well as wind) energy source and
its consequent effect on power system reliability. Fortunately, in the case of PV systems, the period
of availability of solar energy (during the day particularly around solar noon) coincides in many
cases with the periods of increased electricity demand on the system. However, problems can still be
anticipated in terms of system reliability if the extent of PV penetration in a system is to be increased
significantly [24]. Unlike in the case of wind, the energy availability situation from PV systems can
not be improved by combining the outputs of several arrays within a geographical area. Ref. [24]
concludes that in order to effectively and economically accommodate the variability of output from
distributed PV systems, the flexibility of the utility run power system will have to be increased.

An alternative approach to this problem is to develop and adopt effective large local or network-
based energy storage technologies [25]. Candidate technologies include pumped hydro-electric
storage (where feasible), kinetic flywheel storage and battery storage, Before large-scale introduction
of such systems, environment issues including material resource availability and energy payback
periods and end-of life disposal of such systems must be fully investigated besides energy turn-
around efficiencies and cost.

4.0 Conclusions

Solar photovoltaic energy systems have the potential to play a large and significant part in the
emerging renewable energy scenario. In order for this potential to be fulfilled, several of the
technological challenges outlined in this paper needs to be resolved and overcome. These challenges
cover a wide range of technologies from materials to cell and module technologies to electronic
systems to electrical distribution networks. They provide opportunities for science and technology
researchers from a variety of disciplines to contribute in the continuing development of this
technology.

5.0 References

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[3] ________, ‘Trends in photovoltaic applications: Survey report of selected IEA countries between 1992
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