Harnessing Solar energy, Options for India

improving efficiencies of modules, it is expected that PV system efficiency will improve in the near
term. 6 Figure 2 shows module efficiencies from 1998 to 2008. As is evident, c-Si efficiencies are at 17
to 19% and the thin film efficiencies are at 7 to 11% as of 2008.
In research laboratories, multijunction cells combined with light-concentrating optics and
sophisticated sun-tracking systems (essentially CPV) have demonstrated the highest sunlight-toelectricity
conversion efficiencies of any PV technologies at 41.6%. Other research cell efficiencies
range from 20% to almost 28% for c-Si cells; 12% to almost 20% for thin film; and about 5% up to
11% for the emerging PV technologies organic cells and dye-sensitised cells respectively. 7
3.3. Environmental Challenges
In terms of toxicity, only low environmental effects are expected for c-Si technologies. However,
CdTe and CIS cell technologies are considered more problematic due to their high content of
cadmium (Cd), selenium (Se), tellurium (Te) and copper (Cu). In addition, during the manufacture of
CIS modules gaseous toxic substances (for example, hydrogen selenide [H 2Se]) may be produced,
which are generally associated with a certain environmental hazard potential. The environmental
impact of thin film silicon cells is similar to that of the wafer silicon cell, but reduced in magnitude
because of the smaller volume of silicon used. On the whole, the environmental effects related to
solar cell manufacture are equivalent to those of the overall semiconductor industry.
4. Manufacturing Supply Chain
The solar PV industry is one of the fastest growing areas in the energy sector, and over the past few
years has seen tremendous growth worldwide.
World solar cell production reached 9.34 GW in 2009, up from 6.85 GW a year earlier, with thin film
production accounting for 18% of that total. China and Taiwan now account for 49% of global cell
production, which reached 3,304 MW in 2008 in these two countries, with Europe at 1,729 MW
ahead of Japanese production at 1,172 MW in the same year. 8
India’s annual solar PV module production capacity has
reached close to 1 GW or nearly 10% of the global
production capacity. However, most of the production is
exported. The manufacturing capacity of solar PV modules
is expected to grow at a rate of 20 to 25%, and will hit 2.6
GW by 2015. 9
Currently, India does not have the infrastructure for raw material production (polysilicon), and is
entirely dependent on imports for the same. However, there are about fifteen players manufacturing
around 600 MW of solar cells and over twenty players assembling over 1 GW of modules annually.
Furthermore, there are more than fifty players in solar systems integrators. 10
5. Global Policies and Installed Capacities
Globally, as of December 2009, the installed capacity of PV was close to 23 GW, which produces
about 25 TWh of electricity annually. Just a year prior, in 2008, the installed capacity was just 16
GW. Germany has the maximum installed capacity of 16 GW, followed by Japan (2.6 GW) and the US
(1.6 GW). Due to a very generous feed-in tariff, the installed PV capacity in Spain was close to 2.6 GW
Photovoltaic Technology CSTEP | Page 29