India has fastest energy payback time of silicon rooftop systems: ISE

As per a recent photovoltaics report compiled by Fraunhofer Institute of Solar Energy Systems (ISE), a German research group, India has the fastest energy payback time of a mounted silicon PV rooftop system. In India, the payback energy time of a silicon PV rooftop system is only 0.44 of one year (160.6 days), relatively faster than 0.53-0.67 years in Africa, 1-1.3 years in Europe, and 1.42 years in Canada. To estimate the payback time, report authors considered the rooftop PV installation in different geographies utilised a typical, Chinese, 60-cell, mono-crystalline PERC, 19.9%-efficient solar module. As per the report, such a PV system, mounted in India, would take only 0.44 years (160.6 days) to produce the amount of energy used during its generation process, with the figure growing to 1.42 years – 518.3 days – in Canada. The payback energy time is the time needed by a PV system to generate the same amount of electricity used by the grid in manufacturing the same PV system. As per the researchers, the energy required during different stages like poly-Si, ingot wafering, cells, modules, balance-of-systems, and transport to reach the total energy usage in a PV system generation. Authors also recorded a few examples like the balance-of-system, non-generating elements of the PV system needed the most time to displace their energy footprint, accounting for around 0.46 of one year (167.9 days) of 1.28-year (467.2-day) energy payback period of a PV establishment in Europe. The authors also recorded the state of European photovoltaic manufacturing along the value chain for materials, solar cells, and PV modules at the end of 2020. The report suggests that despite the dramatic change in module generation from Europe to Asia observed from 2010 onwards, Germany accounting for 7.6% of all the solar capacity established worldwide by the end of last year, with Europe as a whole hosting 23%, North America 12%, Japan 9%, China 36%, India 6% and the rest of the world 14%, comprising off-grid capacity. Recently, US-based 1366 Technologies aimed to invest $300 million to install a 2 GW solar wafer and cell manufacturing facility in India under the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. Additionally, First Solar Inc. declared on July 30 that it intends to invest USD 684 million in a new, fully vertically integrated photovoltaic (PV) thin-film solar module production facility in India. Image Source Also read: Govt incentivises grid connected rooftop solar systems