Expected impact

Although a reduction of module manufacturing costs is extremely important for the further development of PV, such costs are not directly visible to the user. Therefore the CRYSTALCLEAR consortium has attempted to place the project aims in a broader context.

CRYSTALCLEAR is dedicated to consider (the manufacturing costs of) PV modules, which form the heart of any solar energy system and which account for some 60% of the turn-key price of roof-top installations. The figure below shows the possible reduction of the turn-key prices of such installations over time, as reported by PV TRAC (PV Technology Research Advisory Council: "A Vision for PV Technology up to 2030 and beyond").

The objective of the CRYSTALCLEAR project is to enable a price reduction to a level of 3,0 to 3,5 €/Wp, which roughly corresponds to electricity generation costs of 15 to 40 eurocents per kWh, depending on location in the EU (Roughly assuming a performance ratio of 85%, 3% real interest rate, 20 years economic lifetime, and 1% operation and maintenance costs per year). This is an improvement of 40 to 50 % over the present situation and brings the costs into the range of consumer electricity prices, which is often considered to be the first major hurdle to overcome in order to realize large-scale application of photovoltaics. Since the CRYSTALCLEAR project does not address the Balance-Of-System (BOS), success of CRYSTALCLEAR will not be sufficient to obtain the price reductions shown in Figure 2. It is believed, however, that there will be considerable efforts in the BOS-area as well so that the combined results will be sufficient.

Possible development of turn-key system prices5, divided into modules
and BOS-components. The arrow indicates the portion CC aims at.

CRYSTALCLEAR also aims to improve the environmental quality of the modules. An important parameter in this respect is the so-called energy pay-back time (EPBT), that is the time a module has to operate to generate the same amount of energy (in equivalent terms) as was needed to manufacture it. The EPBT is linked to the effectiveness of the use of PV to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. EPBT's of crystalline silicon based systems built in the period between 1997 to 2000 are in the range of 3-5 years, primarily dependent on location. Official numbers for recently built systems are not yet available, but are expected to be somewhat lower. CRYSTALCLEAR will shorten the EPBT substantially (probably by up to 50%), primarily as a spin-off of reductions in silicon consumption per watt-peak of module, further increasing the already huge long term potential of PV to reduce CO2-emissions.

The results of CRYSTALCLEAR will bring silicon PV technology further to maturity and will facilitate strong penetration into the markets of renewable electricity production.