31/8/2008-09/PVSE
Government of India
Ministry of New and Renewable
Energy
Inviting proposals in
Thrust Areas of research in Photovoltaic Technology
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has been supporting R&D
and technology development initiatives in photovoltaic technology. These efforts have resulted in development
of an industrial base and a wide range of applications in the country.
Photovoltaic technology is considered as a viable option for providing
electricity for both small-decentralized stand alone applications as well as
the grid interactive solar power generation in a sustainable manner. The global
efforts in photovoltaic technology are aimed at reducing the cost of PV devices
and systems by improving their efficiencies, life expectancy, reliability,
reducing the material consumption and developing new material and devices to
achieve this objective.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has identified, in
consultation with the research groups, industry and the experts, the
thrust
areas for research in photovoltaic technology during the 11th
Plan period, which are available on the website of the Ministry. The Ministry
would like to expand the ongoing consultations and develop a set of research
proposals, with institutional linkages, to pursue coordinated research for
different technology areas. Proposals
are invited from the interested research groups including industry to work on
the specific thrust areas of research. Interested groups are requested to
prepare an outline of the proposed work giving the brief and focused
description of the specific research work, expected outputs of the proposed
work, required time and budget to achieve the outputs, experience of the
investigator(s) and the facilities available at the institute, as well as the
proposed institutional linkages to accelerate the progress and benefit from the
available experience at other institutes. The interested groups, who provide a
copy of the required technical and other details, in the MNRE formats available
on the website, will be requested to come for a presentation and discussion for
defining the scope of the research work, short-listing of research
proposals/groups and developing institutional linkages to carry out the
proposed research work in a coordinated manner. This will be followed by
preparation of detailed proposals as per the agreed scope of work among the
short listed groups for submission to the Ministry.
The interested groups are requested to submit the outline of their
proposals by e-mail to bhargava@nic.in or advtct@nic.in before 10th November,
2008.
Ministry of New and
Renewable Energy
Block 14, CGO Complex
Lodi Road, New Delhi 110003
Tel No. 011 –24361932,
24361891, 24368917
THRUST AREAS FOR R&D IN SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC
TECHNOLOGY
In order to make solar cells and modules cost effective the global
R&D efforts are directed to reduce the consumption of silicon and other
materials and improve the efficiency of solar cells / modules to achieve
significant cost reduction. Further, R&D is also undertaken on non-silicon
based solar cell modules and other aspects of PV systems. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
Sources has been supporting R&D and technology development in solar
photovoltaic technology for more than three decades. During the 11th
Plan period it is envisaged that the cost of solar photovoltaic modules can be
brought down to about Rs. 120 per Wp.
In order to achieve this goal the key areas of R&D and technology
development have been identified. Research, design and development efforts
during the 11th plan are proposed to be focused on development of
(i) poly silicon and other materials, (ii) efficient silicon solar cells, (iii)
thin films materials and solar cell modules, (iv) concentrating PV systems, (v)
PV system design, with the objective of significantly reducing the ratio of
capital cost to conversion efficiency. And (vi) design and development of process
and test equipment. The following are the thrust areas for R&D support in
solar photovoltaic technology:
Poly Silicon Material
i. To undertake R&D to make poly
silicon material using alternative methods (non-TCS) to achieve direct
electricity consumption of 125 kWh/kg or lower. The process will be scaled up
to pilot plant production, based on process reactor, which can demonstrate a
capacity up to 100 TPA. The quality of poly silicon material produced at the
pilot plant will be suitable to make high efficiency (>15%) silicon solar cells and the combined trace
impurities of heavy metals, carbon and boron will be limited to ppb.
ii.
To design, develop
and demonstrate at pilot plant scale (about 100 TPA) poly silicon deposition
reactors, based on traditional poly silicon deposition methods, to reduce the
energy consumption to less than 125 kWh/kg of poly silicon material produced,
with the combined trace impurities of heavy metals, carbon and boron limited to
ppb level.
Crystalline
Silicon Solar Cells & Modules
1. To reduce the direct consumption of silicon wafer
(3 gm per Wp) in commercial production by reducing the wafer thickness and
increasing the efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cell to average 18% and
more.
2. To develop and produce multi crystalline silicon
ingots / wafers and produce solar cells with conversion efficiency of 17% and
more in commercial production.
3. To undertake R&D on alternative device
structures to make crystalline silicon solar cells to demonstrate very high
efficiency (22-24% on small size laboratory devices)
4. Improving the effective PV module life to 30 years
and more, with total degradation within 10% of the initial rating under STC.
5. Design and development of low cost, low weight, non-glass
type PV modules with effective module life of 10 years of more, with total
degradation within 10% of the initial rating under STC.
6. Study and evaluate new materials for use in PV
modules.
7. To develop new materials and processes to fabricate solar cells.
Thin Film
Solar Cell Modules
Thin film solar cell modules have potential to reduce the cost of
solar modules due to consumption of less material and energy in the fabrication
processes. Amorphous silicon thin film
solar cells were the first to be developed. In the recent years pilot plants
and a few commercial plants based on other thin film solar cell modules (CdTe, CIGS, silicon) have been set up. It
is proposed to take up R&D and pilot plant demonstration of thin film based
modules in the country during the 11th plan, with the following
objectives.
1.
To undertake R&D on different
processes and device structures to make laboratory scale small area (2cm x 2cm)
devices of efficiency >10% using CdTe, CIGS and silicon thin films.
2. Development of poly crystalline thin film
integrated modules (1 sq ft or more) at pilot plant scale using different
materials (CdTe, CIGS, silicon films) to achieve efficiency of >8% and life
of integrated module > 20 years)
3. Design and development of process equipment.
New
Materials for Solar Cells and Device structures
In the recent years worldwide R&D efforts are being made to study
new materials, which are easy to deposit and consume significantly less energy.
Thin film modules based on organic materials, dye sensitized and doped with
nano materials have potential to produce solar cells. However, these device
structures are in the early stages of development. It is proposed to
established R&D centers in the country to study these concepts and pursue
research in these emerging PV devices.
1. To study and characterize new materials to
determine their suitability for fabrication of new types of solar cells.
2. Design and development of new thin film device structures based on dye sensitized (liquid and solid state) organic, carbon nano tubes, quantum dots etc. materials. The laboratory scale efficiency of 5 – 10% to be achieved.
3. Design and development of process equipment for new thin film device structures.
Concentrating Solar Cells & Modules
Apart from the improvements in the performance of flat plate PV
modules, it is possible to reduce the material consumption and lower the cost
through use of concentrating PV systems. In order to gain experience on
performance of the concentrating system and develop systems suitable for use in
India, the following activities are proposed during the 11th
plan.
1. Design and development of concentrator solar cells
(concentration ratio of 200 sun and more) and modules (efficiency ~ 25 – 30%)
and testing of concentrating PV system in Indian conditions.
2. Development of two axis tracking system suitable
for high concentration PV system.
3. Design and development of heat sink for mounting of
solar cells under high concentration
4. Design and development of optical systems to
achieve concentration ratio of 200 suns and more, with minimum optical
aberration.
5. Development of silicon and GaAs based solar cells
suitable for use under high concentration (200 sun or more)
Storage System
At present stand-alone systems use lead acid batteries. However, with
low power consuming LED based systems use of NiMH and other similar batteries is also coming up. One of the
major constraints in battery storage system is the limited life of storage
batteries. There is an urgent need to enhance the battery cycle life to get at
least 1o years of operating life. Further, it is also necessary to develop
non-lead acid batteries. In addition, alternative methods of storage,
especially to store large quantity of power for a few hours would substantially
improve the viability of grid interactive PV systems. Therefore, the following
tasks have been identified for the 11th Plan.
1. Development of long life (5000 cycles or more)
storage batteries suitable for use in PV systems /applications.
2. Development and testing of new and alternative
storage systems up to MW scale. It should be possible to store electricity for
about 8-10 hours, with storage losses limited to about 10%.
Balance of System & PV Systems
1. Design and development of high efficiency (>50%)
motor pump set of output power of up to 5 hp to lift water from shallow and
deep well (about 30 – 60 metres).
2. Design and development of small capacity inverter
cum charge controller, with total efficiency of 90% or more, suitable for use
in solar lighting systems including LED based lighting systems.
3. Design and development of LED based PV systems for
indoor and outdoor lighting applications
4. Design, development and field-testing of inverters
and grid synchronizing system components (peak efficiency >96% and part load
@ 30% efficiency >88%,) used in residential grid interactive roof top PV
systems.
5. Field-testing and performance evaluation of grid
interactive rooftop residential PV systems.
6. Design, development and testing of inverters (>
100 kWp capacity) and grid synchronizing system components (peak efficiency
>96% and part load @ 30% efficiency >88%) for grid connected PV systems.
7.
Field-testing and
performance evaluation of grid interactive large size PV power plant.
Testing & Characterization Facilities
1. Upgrading the testing and characterization
facilities for PV materials, devices, components, modules and systems
2. Setting up of testing facilities for concentrating
PV systems
3. Study and evaluate new material, device structures
and module designs etc.
4. Design and development of testing and characterization equipment