• Energy Research

In the last decade, the manufacturing capacity of silicon, the dominant PV technology, has increasingly been concentrated in China. This has led to PV cost reduction of approximately 80%, while, at the same time, posing risks to PV supply chain security. Recent advancements of novel perovskite tandem PV technologies as an alternative to traditional silicon-based PV provide opportunities for diversification of the PV manufacturing capacity and for increasing the GHG emission benefit of solar PV. Against this background, we estimate the current and future cost-competitiveness and GHG emissions of a set of already commercialized as well as emerging PV technologies for different production locations (China, USA, EU), both at residential and utility-scale. We find EU and USA-manufactured thin-film tandems to have 2 to 4% and 0.5 to 2% higher costs per kWh and 37 to 40%and 32 to 35% less GHG emissions per kWh at residential and utility-scale, respectively. Our projections indicate that they will also retain competitive costs (up to 2% higher)and a 20% GHG emissions advantage per kWh in 2050.

AbstractMany economic and environmental studies on novel perovskite solar cells (PSCs), published ex post the development stage to investigate the market competitiveness, have focused on laboratory‐scale PSC architectures that are not amenable for upscaling. In this paper, we evaluate the market potential and environmental sustainability of a scalable carbon‐electrode‐based PSC by benchmarking it to the market dominating c‐Si photovoltaics and CIGS thin film photovoltaics. The analysis covers the PSCs full lifecycle, at the module and system levels (residential and utility scale), and is based on realistic annual energy output data derived from energy yield calculations. We find that this PSC can produce electricity at low cost (3–6 €cents/kWh), with lowest energy payback (0.6–0.8 years) and greenhouse gas emissions (15–25g CO2 eq./kWh) compared with grid‐connected PV market alternatives, assuming 25years of lifetime, expected PV system cost reductions, and PSC module recycling and refurbishment.

In the last four decades the European truck industry has made remarkable progress in energy efficiency, but this higher efficiency has failed to materialize in lower consumption per unit of load and distance (Tkm). One possible explanation is rebound effects due to average traveling speed and power enhancements. An original set of data covering forty years of truck tests of 526 commercial vehicles and 28 different European brands shows that energy efficiency (fuel economy) of heavy-duty trucks improved by 43% and (engine) power by 44%. We propose exergy as a metric to capture both dimensions and estimate that exergy efficiency increased by 73% over the same period, with an estimated speed rebound effect generally positive among the trucks tested on road conditions. Rebound effects caused by increased speed add to other sources of rebound like load, distance and frequency of journeys to potentially undermine gains delivered by higher energy efficiency. Our results provide evidence of the existence in the transport sector of a trade-off between power and efficiency as theoretically described by finite-time thermodynamics.