Grantham Institute for Climate Change

Briefing paper No 11
January 2014

Solar power for CO2 mitigation

Jenny Nelson, Ajay Gambhir and Ned Ekins-Daukes

Executive summary
Solar power represents a vast resource which could, in principle,
meet the world’s needs for low-carbon power generation many times over.
The technology to generate solar power by conversion of light to electricity (PV)
and conversion of light to power via heat (solar thermal) is already proven and
widely deployed. The cost reductions in solar PV over the last ten years now
make it competitive with conventional, fossil fuel based grid power in some
locations, and it will soon be competitive in others, including the UK. Solar
power is particularly relevant to the developing world where solar resource
is high and solar power with storage is likely soon to become a more cost-
effective option than diesel generators.

Recent growth in the use of photovoltaic (PV) technology (of around 40%
per year) and rapid reduction in its cost (20% per doubling of capacity) has
demonstrated the potential of solar power to deliver on a large scale. The
Contents
International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that solar power could generate
Executive summary............... ....... 1
22% of the world’s electricity by 2050. This would remove a significant fraction
of the growing global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil generation.
Introduction.. ..................... ....... 2
Such a target is ambitious but achievable: the rate of growth of installed
capacity needed to meet this target is much lower than the actual average Solar energy technology and
growth rate over the last 20 years. current status ........................... 5

In a low-carbon world where balancing generation from fossil fuels may be Achieving carbon emissions
limited, the main challenge in achieving these high penetration levels will be mitigation using solar energy........... 9
the capacity of energy systems to manage the consequent variability in supply.
In energy systems with extensive electricity grids, flexibility can be provided Acknowledgements.. ................... 15
in a number of ways enabling solar PV to provide a large percentage of energy
demand. Energy storage and large scale power distribution networks therefore
become critical complementary technologies to solar power generation.

The costs of solar panels made from the dominant PV technology, crystalline
silicon (c-Si), have tumbled in the last few years so that the panels make up
only a minor part of the cost of the electricity. Meanwhile, research continues
Grantham Briefing Papers analyse climate
into alternative PV materials which may reduce costs and expand capacity even change research linked to work at Imperial,
further. Concentrated solar thermal power is currently more expensive than c-Si setting it in the context of national and
panels, but its built-in storage capabilities allow it to be integrated more easily international policy and the future research
agenda. This paper and other Grantham
into the electric grid at a large scale. Solar hot water is a mature technology publications are available from www.imperial.
that could provide the majority of hot water globally. ac.uk/climatechange/publications
 Imperial College London    Grantham Institute for Climate Change

The contribution of solar power to energy supply and therefore Despite this vast potential, only 0.3% of global primary energy
to emissions reductions could be increased, beyond the IEA demand and 0.5% of global electricity demand is currently met
projections, through continuing technological innovation, by solar energy. Low carbon development pathways forecast that
improvements in manufacture and new applications. For example, by 2050 some 14%3 to 22%4 or more5 of electric power should be
printed flexible photovoltaic panels, alternative product forms supplied by solar conversion. In such pathways, solar, along with
that can be integrated into buildings, large area ground mounted other low-carbon technologies, plays a vital role in decarbonising
systems and concentrated PV technologies all offer the prospect the power sector.
of reduced costs and embedded energy. In terms of public policy
support, market expansion policies can drive down the costs Solar energy is also particularly appropriate in enabling low
of existing technologies but there is also a need for investment carbon development in developing countries, where nearly
in programmes to accelerate technology innovation and 1.3 billion people lack access to electricity2. In general, poorer
development. countries tend to enjoy a relatively high level of solar resource:
Figure 2 shows a scatter plot of the correlation between solar
irradiance and GDP per capita. Technical advances and cost
Introduction reductions suggest that solar PV, with appropriate energy
storage, creates the potential for many communities to leapfrog
This Briefing Paper explores the potential for existing and traditional (fossil based) power generation technologies, similar
emerging solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies to deliver rapid to the widespread take-up of mobile telecommunications.
transformation of our energy systems to limit the scale of future (See Box 2)
climate risks from fossil fuel use. In particular, we examine the
potential for cost reductions and scalability of manufacture and
the new science needed in order to accelerate the uptake of
Solar Energy Conversion
solar power technologies. The Sun supplies the overwhelming majority of the energy
resources harnessed on the Earth, including wind, wave and tidal
The Sun’s radiation provides on average 1.73 x 1017J of energy to the power, hydropower, biomass, all fossil fuels (which derive from
Earth every second1. Figure 1 shows the annual average intensity biomass laid down in the past) and direct solar energy conversion
of radiation over the Earth’s surface, which varies between around into heat, electricity or fuel. Solar energy is also exploited in a
100 and 250 W/m2 due to variations in latitude and climate. Over a passive sense in natural lighting, heating and cooling, and in
year, the solar energy falling on the Earth amounts to almost four agriculture. Here, we are concerned only with the direct and
million ExaJoules (1 EJ = 1018J). Of this perhaps 5x104 EJ could be active routes to solar energy conversion.
readily harvested, which massively exceeds existing and projected
human primary energy demand of around 533 EJ in 2010 and 782 EJ
in 2035, based on current policies.2

Figure 1: Distribution of annual average solar irradiance over the Figure 2: Intensity of mean solar irradiance for individual
Earth’s surface.6 countries plotted on a logrithmic scale of GDP per capita
measured in US$ per person. Calculated using World Bank
and NASA data with exponential trend line.

2 Briefing paper  No 11  January 2014 Solar power for CO2 mitigation
 Grantham Institute for Climate Change    Imperial College London

Box 1: Solar energy conversion In solar photovoltaics, light is absorbed in a semiconductor to

liberate electrical charges which can then travel through the
Solar energy is received as packets of radiant energy, called
material towards a contact with an external circuit, where they
photons, of different energy. When the solar photons are
are able to do electrical work through the photovoltaic effect.
absorbed in a material they give up their energy to excite
In some cases the sunlight is first concentrated on the panel
electrons, which are involved in bonds between the atoms that
using lenses and mirrors. This photovoltaic (PV) energy
make up the material, to a state with higher energy. That energy
conversion is the only process to convert radiant light
can be captured and converted into heat, fuel or electric power.
energy directly into electricity.
We may distinguish three different varieties of solar energy
In solar photochemical energy conversion, the excited electron
conversion: solar thermal (light energy is converted to heat),
takes part in a chemical reaction and gives up its energy to form
solar photovoltaic (light energy converted to electrical work),
a new chemical bond. This solar driven chemical reaction is one
and solar chemical (light energy converted to stored chemical
means to generate synthetic ‘solar’ fuels, which store chemical
potential energy).
energy until it is released again in combustion. Solar chemical
conversion is much less well developed than solar thermal or
In solar thermal conversion, the electron relaxes back to its
photovoltaic, and will not be discussed further here, but may
original state, giving up its energy in small packets, generating
become significant in future.
heat. Solar thermal conversion is used when water is heated in
solar hot water systems, and is also used to generate electric
power in large concentrated solar power (CSP) systems where
sunlight is focussed to heat a fluid that generates power via a
heat engine.

Mitigation of carbon emissions using of carbon rich fuels, whilst renewable technologies such as solar
solar energy produce little or no emissions during operation, but may incur
emissions during manufacture (Figure 3). Solar energy thus can
The impact of an energy technology on the climate can be
help to mitigate carbon emissions by replacing more carbon
characterised by its carbon emission intensity, a measure of
intensive sources of heat and power. The amount of emissions
the amount of CO2 or CO2 equivalent emitted per unit of energy
mitigated depends on the amount of conventional heat or power
generated. Here, ‘CO2 equivalent’ (CO2eq) refers to non-CO2
that is displaced, the carbon intensity of the displaced
greenhouse gases, notably methane and nitrous oxide, which
energy sources, and the amount and type of energy that is
are released from a number of human activities such as fossil
consumed in manufacturing, installing and operating the
fuel extraction and agriculture. Existing fossil fuel technologies
solar energy system.
possess high carbon emission intensity through the combustion

1200 Figure 3: Carbon intensity of some key

Carbon Intensity from Electricity

electricity generation technologies; the

1000
Generation / CO2 / kWh

value for PV refers to manufacture in

800 Europe. UK Climate Change Committee
targets for carbon intensity of electric
600 UK 2013 power are shown for comparison.7

400 UK 2020 Target

200
2030 Target
0
Nu Wi CS PV Na Co
cle nd P tu al
ar ral
Ga
s
Type of electricity generation

Solar power for CO2 mitigation Briefing paper  No 11  January 2014 3
 Imperial College London    Grantham Institute for Climate Change

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published a generation and distribution technologies and infrastructure
number of future energy scenarios including the two degree have entrenched this advantage. The limited large scale and
scenario (2DS) in which the global temperature rise is limited commercial experience with low-carbon alternatives and their
to around 2°C and the 2DS-hiRen scenario, in which renewable variable nature have also made it challenging to scale up their
generation plays a major role. The 2DS-hiRen scenario projects adoption and attract the investment needed to drive down
that approximately one third of renewable power, or 22% of costs and to drive innovation in the absence of significant
worldwide electricity, could be supplied from solar energy by policy incentives or regulations. Even with such measures,
2050, of which 11.3% is provided by PV and 10.4% by solar additional energy storage or power management measures
thermal.8 In the 2DS, where the renewable contribution is will be needed if solar energy is to meet a much larger
smaller, solar is anticipated to provide 14% of global power. proportion of energy demand.
The projected growth for the 2DS scenario is shown in Figure 4
in comparison with historical trends. Moreover the IEA estimates A number of factors, economic, technical and policy related,
that the use of solar photovoltaic and concentrated thermal influence the contribution that solar energy actually makes
power would contribute 12% of the 258 Gt of CO2 emissions in a given situation:
that would need to be mitigated globally by 2050 in the 2DS
scenario relative to the baseline 4DS case8. The projected 2050 • Technical and economic considerations include: the available
deployment level represents a growth in capacity of some solar resource; the power conversion efficiency; the cost per
12-14% per annum on average, much slower than current and unit capacity; the operational (as opposed to capital) costs;
historical growth rates. These rapid growth rates appear to the lifetime of the system; the carbon intensity of the system
be both technically and economically feasible on the basis of and its operation; the carbon intensity and cost of competing
recent experience. Thus, solar photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies; the match between resource availability and
energy represent a vitally important capability to achieve demand; and the availability of complementary technologies
significant emissions reductions. to improve this match;

• Policy measures can influence solar technology deployment

The low level of solar energy utilisation so far is the result of
through subsidies and incentives, regulatory measures,
a number of factors. Historically, a major hindrance was the
measures to facilitate sufficient manufacturing and
high cost of solar photovoltaic technologies but dramatic price
installation infrastructure, demand management, awareness
reductions have meant that solar PV technology is now cheap,
raising and other means.
with cost limited by other components of the system. The low
private cost of fossil fuels (i.e. ignoring atmospheric pollution Achieving the anticipated level of solar energy generation will
and climate costs) relative to lower-carbon alternatives has led require some combination of performance improvement, further
to the current dominant position of fossil fuels in the energy reductions in the cost of manufacture and cost of systems, and
system. Investment in and development of associated implementation and policy measures.

Figure 4: Historical growth

of solar hot water, wind,
solar electricity (symbols).
The solid blue line shows
the IEA 2DS scenario for
solar electricity, whilst the
solid red line indicates
the much higher growth
suggested by experience
with solar 8. The annual
investment in solar
technology is marked for
2013, 2020, 2030 and 2040
for each scenario stated in
US dollars and as a fraction
of global GDP.

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Solar energy technology and water systems can provide 50-70% of the annual domestic
hot water use even in the UK.10 Since hot water amounts to
current status 18% of domestic energy usage in the UK,11 solar hot water
could make a large contribution to domestic energy use.
Solar hot water systems
Current status and technology Mitigation potential
Solar hot water is the simplest way of harnessing solar energy In practical domestic solar hot water systems, the solar hot
and is a mature technology. Apart from providing hot water for water system is usually run in conjunction with, rather than
sanitary purposes and swimming pools, it can also be used for instead of, a backup conventional boiler and as a result the
heating and cooling spaces, and some industrial processes. carbon intensity of the combined system is high relative to
The most widely used technology is the evacuated tube, glazed other renewables, at some 100-200 gCO2/kWhth.12 Moreover
collector where a specially engineered energy absorber is the high efficiency of modern condensing gas boilers, which
deposited on the inside of an evacuated tube. Such collectors can convert over 90% of the calorific value of the fuel into
can heat water to 60-100°C and can convert 20-70% of the useful heat, means that the carbon intensity of these heat
incident solar energy into heat, depending on the temperature sources is relatively low at 200-300 gCO2/kWhth.13 As a result
of the water, the environment and the solar irradiance level. domestic solar water heating systems are a relatively expensive
Flat plate glazed collectors have a similarly engineered way of mitigating carbon emissions when they replace heat
absorber, but do not employ a vacuum for insulation. Both from efficient modern boilers. The abatement cost would be
are used for heating hot water for domestic and commercial lower if the solar hot water system were compared against an
purposes. A third variety, unglazed solar collectors are less electrical immersion heater powered by high-carbon generation.
efficient and are used to heat swimming pools, where a large Abatement costs are also helped when the solar systems
area of collectors can be deployed. Such systems are widely are installed in new buildings rather than retrofitted to
used in the USA and Australia. existing ones.

Solar hot water accounted for 235 gigawatts of thermal power In addition, solar heating of water and other fluids can be
(GWth), that is, the great majority of the global installed solar exploited for industrial applications such as food processing
energy capacity, by the end of 2011.9 Figure 5 shows the installed and desalination, and, in principle, for space cooling using
capacity for leading countries. Solar hot water is already cost an absorption/refrigeration cycle or a desiccant system.14
effective for many applications and in some locations, such as Although heat-driven refrigeration cycles are less efficient
China, it has a self-sustaining market position. than mechanically-driven systems, they may be an appropriate
solution when cooling demand coincides with oversupply of
The majority of domestic hot water globally could be provided solar heat during summer.
by solar heating systems. A 2010 study showed that solar hot

Figure 5: Total installed capacity

of solar hot water collectors for six
leading counties and the UK9. The
installed thermal capacity per capita
is stated above each bar.

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Solar photovoltaics growth globally in spite of reducing incentives reflects the

economic competitiveness of PV.
Current status and technology
In solar photovoltaic energy conversion, light is absorbed by a The majority of the approximately 100 GWp of installed systems
semiconductor to generate electric current which can be used are grid connected and of these, most are mounted on or
directly, fed into the electricity grid or used to charge a battery. integrated into buildings. Building mounted PV systems are
The PV system usually consists of a set of PV modules, typically typically less than a few 100 kWp in capacity. However the fraction
0.5-1 m2 in area, electronics to control the output, mounting of generation in utility scale installations is growing rapidly, with
structures, electrical cables, and commonly, an inverter to convert the fraction of capacity installed in Germany as large (>500 kWp)
the direct current generated by the panels into alternating current. units increasing from 3% in 2008 to 45% in 2012.16 Less than
The modules are made from a semiconductor, most often silicon, 10% of capacity is currently deployed in off-grid systems.
and the remaining components are grouped as the ‘balance of
Systems’ (BoS). In a system which is not connected to the grid,
The PV module is made from one or more layers of a
batteries are also needed but the AC/DC converter may not be.
semiconductor material, placed between two contact materials
The capacity of a PV system is stated in peak Watts (Wp), where
that collect the electric current. The most commonly used
the panel rating in Wp refers to the power output by a module, or
semiconductor material is crystalline or multi-crystalline silicon:
system, measured under standard testing conditions where the
Crystalline silicon (c-Si) accounted for 88% of the market in
solar intensity is set at 1000 Wm-2, typical of a clear, sunny summer
201117 and the vast majority of installed capacity to date. c-Si
day.15 The power production by a PV system is given in units of
has dominated the development of PV thanks to experience in
Watt hours (Wh) per annum, and depends on the capacity and the
manufacture and processing from the microelectronics industry.
annually averaged irradiance at the location. The average power
The best commercial modules can convert sunlight to electricity
output of any system is much less than its rating in Wp, because
with an efficiency of 21% but the average efficiency is close to
of the variability in sunshine and periods of darkness.
16%16. In the mid 2000s, the demand for silicon for PV module
manufacture outstripped that for microelectronic components
The capacity of PV power installed globally exceeded 100 MWp in and caused a temporary shortage in silicon feedstock (as
1992, 1 GWp (1 GW = 109 W) in 2002 and 100 GWp early in 2013, reflected in module prices in Figure 7). The trend in PV module
as shown in Figure 4, resulting in an average growth of around prices mainly reflect c-Si module prices and have fallen with
40% per annum. This sustained growth followed a series of the growth of installed capacity through economies of scale in
incentive schemes including early German and Japanese incentive manufacture, reduced silicon usage, and innovations in device
schemes and feed-in tariff (FiT) schemes in several key European design and processing. As a result, the price has fallen with a
countries. Figure 6 shows installed photovoltaic generating ‘learning ratio’ of around 20%,18 that is, prices have fallen by
capacity and demonstrates the effect of domestic incentives. 20% for every doubling of capacity. Silicon module prices have
In 2012 Germany was the largest PV market, installing 7.6 GWp, tumbled from around $16/Wp in 1989 to below $1/Wp59. As a
followed by China with 3.5 GWp, and Italy and the United States result, an increasing share of the cost of the PV system, and the
with 3.3 GWp each. In 2013, China has taken the lead followed by resulting electricity, arises from the balance of systems and not
Japan. Since the introduction of a feed-in-tariff, PV installations in the solar module (Figure 7).
the UK have increased to reach 1.8 GWp by 2013. The continuing

Figure 6: Cumulative photovoltaic

capacity installed by the end
of 2012 and Feed-in tariff as of
December 2013.33 The tariff for
USA varies between states, the
value shown pertains to California
where the majority of solar
capacity is installed.

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Grantham Institute for Climate Change    Imperial College London

A second important class of PV materials are thin films, most areas is provided by glass and steel that can be manufactured
commonly the inorganic compound semiconductors cadmium relatively cheaply.27 To ensure the optical system is always facing
telluride (CdTe) and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS). the sun, the light collecting surfaces are rotated with time of
Relative to c-Si, thin film PV modules require less semiconductor day and season in order to capture the direct part of the sun’s
material because of better light absorption and because they can radiation. CPV technology is well suited to large, ground based
be deposited directly onto glass, plastic or metal foil,19 avoiding solar power plants in sunny locations but smaller modules
several of the processing stages needed for Si cell manufacture, containing miniature cells and focussing optics are also available.
and also increasing the size of the manufacturing units. They By the end of 2012, CPV provided a global capacity of around 80
were introduced as a lower cost alternative to c-Si, on the MWp16, well under 1% of global PV capacity, with new plant sizes
grounds that a lower efficiency (commercial thin film modules of up to 30 megawatts (MW, 106W)28. Practical module efficiencies
offer 10-14% efficiency16) could be tolerated if the cost per are 25-31%16 and capacity costs stood at around $4/Wp.
unit capacity was reduced. In practice, thin films such as CdTe
offer superior generation under high temperatures or cloudy Mitigation potential
conditions than a similarly rated capacity of c-Si. The leading The carbon intensity of PV power varies between these
CdTe manufacturer reached a module cost of $0.65/Wp in 201220 technologies according to the materials and processes used
but the advantage was soon threatened by the aggressive and module efficiency. According to Ref . 21 power generation
development of c-Si. In this context it should be noted that the by PV systems manufactured in Europe and deployed in southern
falling costs of PV modules mean that the module comprises Europe using c-Si, multi crystalline silicon and CdTe systems incur
a minority of the system, and therefore the electricity cost, so 38 gCO2/kWh, 27 gCO2/kWh and 15 gCO2/kWh, respectively.
the advantage of a cheaper module technology is small. Thin Around 5 gCO2/kWh of this is embedded in the BoS. These
films comprise around 12% of the current installed capacity and values may double for manufacture using a grid mix typical of
market.21 The potential for widespread growth of thin film PV China rather than Europe.29,30 In the case of concentrating PV
is questioned on the grounds of scarcity of the rare elements systems, where a large quantity of steel is required to fabricate
indium (used in CIGS) and tellurium (used in CdTe), and the the collectors along with a small device area, the resulting
toxicity of cadmium (used in CdTe and also in CIGS). carbon intensities are similar to silicon at 20-40 g CO2/kWh for
deployment in ideal locations.31,32 In all cases the carbon intensity
Alternative thin film designs, in which the semiconductor can be is very much less than the carbon intensity of the grid electricity
processed from solution on to a flexible plastic or foil, include that is being displaced in any fossil fuel reliant countries; carbon
dye-sensitised,22 organic,23 and solution processed inorganic intensity of grid power is around 500 gCO2/kWh in the UK, for
designs based, for example, on semiconductor nanoparticles24 example. The carbon intensity of the displaced generation will
or semiconducting organometal compounds called perovskites.25 also be affected by the variability in supply and variations in
Low materials costs and fast throughput offer the possibility of the local demand.
reducing module cost significantly to just that of the substrate
and encapsulation layers. Light weight, mechanical flexibility, The performance, availability, costs and carbon intensity of
semi transparency and low capital investment in manufacturing photovoltaic power all indicate that this technology can make
plant may expand the range of PV applications beyond those a very substantial contribution to reducing carbon emissions,
available to flat plate modules. Currently, apart from some as discussed below.
demonstration projects and consumer products mainly made
using dye sensitised technology, these technologies are still pre-
commercial. Growth of a market will depend on the impact of the
module properties on BoS costs, product form and ability to scale
up manufacturing capacity.

A third group of PV technologies are high efficiency devices

based on multiple layers of different semiconductors chosen in
order to harness the different wavelengths in the solar spectrum
more efficiently than a single semiconductor material. The best
solar cells of this type have achieved efficiencies of over 44%
in laboratory,26 and commercial modules up to 32% efficiency,
although these efficiencies only apply to the direct beam
component of sunlight. Because of the expensive manufacturing
routes required to make these multijunction solar cells, they
are not economic for power generation when most of the sun’s
energy received is diffuse. They become more economic when
used together with mirrors or lenses that focus the sunlight onto
small, high-performance solar cells in concentrator PV (CPV) Figure 7: Reduction in total PV system costs. Data pre-2012 is
systems. In this configuration most of the light harvesting surface historical; post-2012 are projected from industry estimates.34,35

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Concentrating solar thermal power or by managing the demand through regulation and incentive.
A common practical route to accommodate such variable power
Current status and technology
generation is to incorporate flexible capacity such as open cycle
In the case of concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) systems,
or combined cycle gas turbines into the grid, which can be turned
concentrated sunlight is used to efficiently heat a fluid to a high
on and off at short notice41. A renewable alternative would be a
temperature at which it can drive a steam turbine or a heat engine
biofuel combined heat and power plant.40 This incurs cost through
to generate electric power. Whereas unconcentrated sunlight is
the investment in flexible capacity.
sufficient to heat water in solar water systems, high concentration
levels are needed to collect heat with a thermal fluid at the
In the UK, it is estimated that the grid can accommodate 20% of
level at which it can drive a heat engine efficiently. In the most
generation from variable sources in this way, at an additional cost
widely used solar thermal systems, sunlight is concentrated
of 0.5p/kWh.41 At higher levels of penetration the integration of
by a factor of 70 using a reflective linear parabolic trough that
variable sources becomes more challenging, placing demands
collects sunlight and focuses it on to a tube, resulting in working
on power redistribution, grid storage and dynamic response
fluid temperatures of 390°C. Concentration in two axes using a
of back-up power sources.42 Renewable penetration may also
parabolic dish with a receiver at its focus, or an array of mirrors
increase costs by a few per cent through impact of rapid cycling
focussed on to a solar tower leads to higher concentration ratios
on backup fossil plant lifetime.43 At high penetration levels
of several hundreds, fluid temperatures of 500-1000°C and solar
dynamic management of the electrical demand, by switching off
to electric power conversion efficiencies of over 30%. Because,
non-essential loads in order to balance supply and demand,
as with CPV, only direct sunlight can be concentrated in this way,
becomes a more attractive option.
CSP systems are sited preferentially in cloudless, sunny locations.
CSP is well suited to large scale power generation, because of
When other renewable sources, such as wind power, are
economies of scale in plant manufacture and operation. By 2012
included the complementary supply profiles reduce the burden
over 2.5 GWp of CSP capacity was installed globally, the majority
on conventional capacity. In Germany, where generation from
in Spain and USA, mainly in plants of 50 MW using parabolic
renewables (both wind and solar) can amount to 20-30% of
trough systems. 390 GWe of CSP is estimated to be feasible by
demand, experience has shown that wind and solar generation
2050 from the Mediterranean region desert.36 Costs of modern
complement each other on a daily and seasonal basis16. A study
installations stand at around $4/Wp.37 One key advantage that
undertaken by Poyry44 for the UK CCC demonstrated that, also
CSP holds over all photovoltaic technologies is that it is easier to
in the UK, a more diverse renewables mix helps the electricity
store thermal energy than electrical energy, so that by storing the
system to accommodate variability. Fluctuations in supply can be
heated fluid, electricity can be generated hours after the sunlight
managed partly with the help of short term (minutes to hours)
has been absorbed, enabling power generation over a longer
power storage technologies such as flywheels and longer term
period than daytime and a better match of generated solar power
(daily and weekly) large capacity storage involving compressed
to demand. For example, 60% of the CSP capacity in Spain has
air (CAES) or pump-storage plants (PSP). Since CAES and PSP
six-hour sensible heat storage in molten salts: i.e. the plant can
are the cheapest and incur the least emissions per unit capacity45
run at full power for six hours using only stored energy. Steam
they tend to be preferred to electrochemical storage (batteries)
storage is less efficient and lasts less than an hour, but attempts
or hydrogen fuel conversion. However developments in battery
are underway to extend steam storage to days.38
technology may make domestic scale batteries cost effective in
the medium term in some contexts.
Mitigation potential
Life-cycle analyses place the carbon intensity of CSP derived In off-grid applications, such as solar power in the developing
power at 20-50 gCO2/kWh.39 When integrated into energy world, battery storage is essential to enable electricity demand
systems the uniformity of power output and built-in thermal (principally for lighting, communications, refrigeration and
storage mean that the requirement for associated storage or small-scale industry or commerce) to be met using solar power
flexible capacity is less than for PV and the need for curtailment – with some exceptions such as water-pumping for agriculture.
is less. Indeed the flexible nature of CSP could help in integrating PV capacity may be deployed as individual solar home systems
more variable capacity, such as PV, into electricity grids. consisting of module and battery, or as centralised PV and
storage facilities with a local power distribution network.
Integration of solar photovoltaic electricity
The costs and carbon intensities given for the technologies From the perspective of the whole energy system, replacing
above are calculated for power delivered to a grid, rather than conventional coal or gas generation with renewables together
matched to a particular demand profile. In practice the power with electricity storage or possible increases in flexible capacity
generated from a variable source such as solar radiation is raises the cost and the carbon embedded in the renewable
provided at a different time, and possibly place, than the demand system. At present, storage of electricity using batteries is
for this power. The mismatch between supply and demand is fairly efficient (>80%) but expensive (adding $0.2/kWh)46 with
met by feeding the power into an electric grid and using other a lifetime of ten years or less. In the case of off-grid generation,
sources to provide power when the solar resource is low, or by the relatively high cost of battery storage can double the overall
storing the generated power in large or small storage systems, cost of the electricity and the carbon intensity.47

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Box 2: Competitiveness of solar PV with diesel power in developing countries

In off-grid locations in developing countries, solar power currently dominated by diesel (60% diesel generation in
together with energy storage typically must compete 2013) but is likely to be dominated by PV within a few years
with diesel generators. While the variable nature of solar (10% diesel generation in 2015). This imminent crossover
generation and the high cost of storage mean that it is is enabled by the anticipated development of lithium ion
usually cheaper to meet demand using diesel power, this storage as a load shifting technology and by the expected
balance is changing. The figure above shows the fraction that phasing out of diesel subsidies in India. Even at current prices
diesel generation contributes to the total energy demand in it is economical to use solar PV in conjunction with a diesel
the cost-optimal hybrid system consisting of PV generator, generator to benefit from cheap solar electricity when supply
battery and diesel generator, as a function of the cost of overlaps demand. This shows that technology choices based
diesel and the cost of battery storage in rural India.47 For on present day costs alone could be misguided, and that
each combination of diesel and storage costs, the diesel hybrid systems enable flexibility.
generator, PV panel and battery are sized to minimise the cost
of electricity generated. Typically, it is cheaper to generate
daytime power with solar and night-time power with diesel.
According to current and projected storage and diesel costs
in India for 2013, 2015 and 2020 the lowest cost system is

Achieving carbon emissions mitigation of the replacement solar technology. Calculating the carbon
intensity of a given solar technology is not as straightforward
using solar energy as it sounds, since it depends not just on the technology but
also where and how it is produced.
Factors influencing carbon emissions mitigation
The amount of carbon dioxide emissions that can be mitigated The mitigation potential of solar power will thus be greatest
by a renewable energy technology such as solar power in a given when the maximum useful solar power capacity is deployed,
period (usually, a year) depends on a number of factors. The when the carbon emitted per unit of electrical energy produced
scale of emissions savings is set by the amount of useful energy is minimised and when solar displaces the most carbon intensive
generated by the solar technology over the relevant period. The generation technologies, e.g. currently coal or diesel generation.
actual level of mitigation is then determined by multiplying this In Box 3 we consider these factors in more detail. The discussion
by the difference between the carbon intensity per kWh of the is focussed on PV power but many of the issues are relevant
power source that is displaced by solar and the carbon intensity for CSP.

Solar power for CO2 mitigation Briefing paper  No 11  January 2014 9
 Imperial College London    Grantham Institute for Climate Change

Box 3: Factors influencing emissions mitigation potential can vary by a factor of 3 or 4 solely through location of
the PV system. When solar power is used in off-grid situations,
Carbon intensity of solar electrical energy. Carbon is spent
then the carbon intensity of the displaced fuel and any related
in the manufacture of solar panels and balance of systems,
plant should be used. For example, the high embedded energy
through the energy used in manufacture and transport
in kerosene lamps makes it effective to replace kerosene with
and the embedded energy in the materials used. This
solar lighting despite the relatively high carbon intensity of
leads to a carbon intensity per unit capacity of between
off-grid solar systems that include battery storage.48,49 In more
600 kg CO2/kWp for practical CdTe systems and around
detailed analyses the marginal carbon intensity, which may
1500-2500 kg CO2/kWp for practical c-Si systems, reflecting
vary with time of day, needs to be considered.
the more energy intensive manufacture process for silicon
modules. This number also depends on the carbon intensity
The amount of solar capacity deployed depends on:
of the energy used in manufacture, hence on manufacturing
location. The carbon intensity per kWh of power generated is
(i) the cost of the PV electricity relative to alternatives, which
then found by dividing the carbon intensity per unit capacity
in turn depends upon the module cost and efficiency, cost
by the power generated per peak Watt over the system lifetime.
of the balance of systems, solar irradiance level and the
This quantity is influenced by the solar resource (typically
cost of the locally available alternatives;
1000-2000 kWh/Wp/year, depending on location) and the
system lifetime (typically 25 years). The resulting values are in (ii) availability of the PV technology, which depends on
the range 20 to 40 gCO2/kWh for manufacture and deployment availability of modules and system components (such
in Europe, rising to 80 gCO2/kWh for manufacture in a coal as inverters and batteries), and hence on manufacturing
dominated economy, such as China21. This number is capacity and raw materials such as the rare elements
reduced by increasing module power conversion efficiency tellurium or indium, as well as on the infrastructure
(which reduces area related costs), extending system lifetime, and skills to install and maintain systems; and on the
by deploying the systems in sunnier areas or by using less available area;
carbon intensive materials and fabrication processes in
(iii) the fraction of renewable power that can readily be
module manufacture.
accommodated in the electric grid, which depends on
the cost, capacity and flexibility of back-up generation,
Note that the relevant quantity is the carbon intensity of
the integration of complementary renewables in the grid
solar electricity used to meet demand rather than that of the
mix, measures to control demand, and large scale grid
electricity generated. Resource variability and the resulting
optimisation; and
mismatch of supply and demand mean that some solar power
has to be stored, dumped or, possibly, complemented by (iv) regulatory issues, such as building and planning
additional conventional power capacity in excess of that needed regulations, and policy measures such as incentives to
to generate the displaced power. These factors increase the stimulate the market and/or obligations on suppliers to
carbon intensity and cost of the useful solar electricity. In off- provide solar generation.
grid situations the dumping of generated power because of
Historically the volume deployed was restricted by the high
limited storage capacity can double the carbon intensity of
cost of modules which led to high solar electricity costs relative
solar power.47
to grid power, but since 2012 grid-connected PV electricity has
reached price parity with the electrical grid in countries where
Carbon intensity of displaced power. The carbon intensity
retail electricity prices are high, such as Denmark, Germany
of grid power varies between locations, from around
and Italy, and other European countries are soon to follow.50
900 gCO2eq/kWh in India to around 500 gCO2eq/kWh in the
Therefore the other factors become important in influencing
UK and less in countries such as Norway and France. Given that
deployment levels.
solar resource also varies between locations, the mitigation

Achieving proposed carbon emissions mitigation 2010 roadmap, so that the incumbent PV technology is already
competitive with retail electricity prices in some areas and soon
According to the 2012 IEA Energy Technology Perspectives
will be elsewhere. The rate of growth of installed capacity to meet
scenario 2DS, PV is expected to generate over 11% and CSP
the target of 11% in 2050, of 10-15% per annum, is much lower
over 10% of global electricity/energy demand by 2050 with a
than the average growth rate of around 40% experienced over
resultant saving of 30 Gt CO2.51 In the 2DS-hiRen scenario the
the last 20 years.
CO2 savings due to solar power, relative to the 4DS, are doubled
to approximately 60 Gt CO2.4
The main remaining challenge lies in managing the anticipated
level of penetration. The projected 11% penetration level is
This level is viable from both a technical and an economic
approximately double the highest fraction of PV generated
perspective. The cost of the dominant silicon based PV modules
electricity experienced, so far, of 5.6-5.7%, in Germany and
has come down faster than expected even compared to the IEA

10 Briefing paper  No 11  January 2014 Solar power for CO2 mitigation
Grantham Institute for Climate Change    Imperial College London

Italy during 2012.52 These levels have led to some challenges Promoting PV technologies with lower embedded
in electricity supply: it has been claimed that variability in energy or lower cost
Germany’s overall electricity supply is responsible for increased Innovations in module manufacture can lead to significant
risk of blackouts, and that Germany’s distribution network savings in both module cost and emissions during manufacture.
is unable to cope with this level of solar PV without some For c-Si, the energy payback time of a rooftop system has halved
curtailment. High PV penetration with public subsidy has since 2000, along with reductions in the wafer thickness and in
also been blamed for reducing electricity spot prices and for the amount of silicon wasted in manufacture16. Such a trend in
deteriorating business models for traditional power technologies. manufacture and in associated emissions is expected in other,
less mature or emerging PV technologies such as thin film, CPV
The German government is investing in the development of or flexible PV as the level of production grows. For example,
storage technology in order to address some of these issues in the case of organic photovoltaics it has been shown how a
and has imposed limits on the fraction of generation that can be pre-commercial manufacturing process based on coating with
provided by PV. Of the remaining factors, government policies can an energy payback time of 1-2 years53 could evolve to deliver a
help to develop skills and infrastructure and foster a supportive payback time of one day through innovations in manufacture
regulatory environment. In some countries with limited land area, and materials use.54 Use of solution based manufacture offers
such as Singapore, or low insolation and high population, such the potential for enhanced reductions in embedded energy
as the UK, deployment is partly constrained by available land area. with production volume. However, given that the majority of the
In these cases, more innovative PV products may become useful. cost of the PV system is already due to the balance of systems,
continuing reductions in the module cost will have a small effect
Costs of carbon emissions mitigation on the cost of electricity, unless the new technologies also enable
savings in installation, electrical connection or application.
The cost effectiveness of different carbon abatement approaches
can be measured by evaluating the cost of implementing the
Reducing the cost and emission of the associated
carbon saving measure per unit CO2 avoided (i.e., the abatement
system components
cost) against a reference or business-as-usual scenario. A
number of organisations have published marginal abatement Figure 7 shows how the BoS dominates the overall cost of the
cost curves44,45,46, with the McKinsey report highlighting the PV system as the module costs reduce. BoS costs have also
affordability of both CSP ($18/tonne CO2) and PV ($19/tonne CO2) reduced but more slowly, because whilst savings can be achieved
as mitigation solutions by 2030, ahead of fossil fuel power plants via market pressure on control electronics some elements (such
as labour costs) are highly variable between applications and
equipped with Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology.
locations. Innovation in inverter technology has helped to bring
prices down in Germany where BoS costs approximately halved
For comparison, the Climate Change Committee’s published
between 2005 and 2012 to around $1/Wp partly though inverter
value of £260/tonne CO2 of solar PV deployed on existing UK
price reductions16. Standardisation in product form, marketing
residential buildings in 2020 illustrates the strong, regional
and installation are also expected to reduce system costs. A
variation of abatement costs and their sensitivity to the
key factor influencing BoS costs is whether the PV system is
background assumptions, in this case high retrofit costs and
retrofitted onto existing buildings. System costs are usually lower
low solar irradiance. Nevertheless, a relative comparison of
for both new-build, where installation costs are absorbed into
abatement costs against a single reference mode helps inform
building costs, and for ground mounted PV systems, than for
discussion of when and where it is most effective to stimulate
retrofit on old buildings. Use of local manufacture can also reduce
growth in solar technology via subsidies.
emissions by avoiding transport, but will compete with savings
due to economies of scale.
Despite widespread potential, solar water heating systems are
estimated to have significantly higher abatement cost than
Economies of scale in manufacturing modules have been an
photovoltaic systems, at over £600/tonne CO2 as a result of the important factor in achieving cost reductions so far55 as has the
high efficiency of modern gas boilers12,13. They therefore hold market size and density. Further potential exists for the reduction
the greatest potential in situations where gas is unavailable and of costs also through the scale of the PV system. The form and
later in the century, when all combustion of natural gas requires size of PV product has barely evolved in the last 40 years. Flexible
capture and sequestration to remain below the 2030 carbon and light weight products, for example, could be implemented
intensity target shown in Figure 3. at lower cost over large area roofs or as part of urban and rural
infrastructure provided the efficiency is high enough to be cost
Strategies to increase the mitigation of carbon effective. New manufacturing technologies using high throughput
emissions using solar energy printing and coating offer such product variability.
Assuming that the grid penetration can be managed, then solar
power has the potential to have an even greater impact on carbon Improving integration through development of
emissions than projected by the IEA. Based on the above, we associated technologies
can identify a number of routes to enhance emissions mitigation Provision of more than about 20% of generation from renewable
using solar energy. sources will eventually require the development of new

Solar power for CO2 mitigation Briefing paper  No 11  January 2014 11
 Imperial College London    Grantham Institute for Climate Change

technologies for power distribution and storage. At the present lower embedded energy is used, if panels are manufactured in
time no single approach has been identified to solve the problem a less carbon rich power source (in EU rather than China) and if
of mismatch of intermittent supply and demand, however, energy deployment after manufacture is accelerated. This type of analysis
storage, power redistribution, demand management and mixing may help in planning for the uptake of lower carbon technologies
of renewable energy technologies all have the potential to as they become available. For example the relative impacts of
increase the fraction of generation from renewables. incentives to stimulate market growth and R&D investment to
accelerate lower carbon technologies could be evaluated.
Energy storage is currently limited by the high cost, size and
relatively high carbon intensity of batteries and the limited
geographical availability of large scale storage solutions such
as PSP and CAES. For solar power, the primary requirement is for
storage technologies that can charge and discharge on a daily
timescale, including both large capacity grid scale storage that
can be integrated into the distribution network and domestic
scale storage that can be integrated with local generation. R&D
into developing new battery materials and reducing the costs of
existing technologies may, however, reduce the costs of batteries,
such as lithium ion batteries for domestic scale applications and
flow batteries for mini grid or grid integrated batteries, over the
next decades. These developments will benefit from knowhow
and market experience developed for electric vehicles.
Figure 8: Cumulative emissions in Mte CO2 due to the growth
Regarding the electric distribution network, current R&D efforts
of PV in Germany from 2000 to 2015 depending on technology
address the development of technology to manage demand and
deployed (c-Si and CdTe PV technology), and also comparing the
supply using so-called smart grids, as well as higher efficiency
effect of location of c-Si panel manufacture.56
power transmission using high voltage DC transmission networks.
In addition, demand can be managed using regulatory tools and
price incentives to switch non essential demand to high supply Policy and regulatory measures
periods. The different supply profiles of wind, marine and solar As discussed in this paper, the costs of solar PV technologies
energy can be exploited in order to smooth the renewable supply. have fallen dramatically over time. PV monocrystalline silicon
Improved techniques to forecast supply from natural resources, cell costs were of the order $300 per Watt in the mid-1950s.57
as well as improved energy system models with temporal and Recent analysis suggests that PV module production costs (again
spatial resolution will be necessary to optimise the mix of energy for monocrystalline silicon) in both the US and China are now
technologies. below $1 per peak Watt, with predictions of around $0.5 per Watt
achievable in the long-term, as a result of continued innovation
Finally, since solar photovoltaic and solar thermal technologies and scale-up.58 Newer technologies such as OPV are believed to
each exploit only part of the solar spectrum, hybrid technologies be able to achieve similar or even lower costs to established PV
that combine more than one function offer to extend the ways of technologies in the long-term.59 A key question is the role that
using solar energy. Examples are hybrid systems that integrate policy and regulation should play in the achievement of these
solar PV and solar thermal technology into the same module cost reduction, for both established and emerging technologies.
where the different parts of the solar spectrum are preferentially
harnessed by the PV and thermal converters, and hybrid PV/ PV module prices have been demonstrated to have a high
storage devices where solar PV is used either to deliver power correlation with cumulative installed capacity over the last few
or to generate a fuel, such as hydrogen, or systems where the decades, with a “learning rate” (the % reduction in price for
spectrum is split between PV power and fuel generation. every doubling of cumulative installed capacity) of just over 20%
when measured at the global level over the period 1976-2006.60
Scenario dependent energy balance Such learning curve analysis has often been invoked to argue
Cumulative emissions savings over a period of time can be for the role of market creation incentives in order to promote
optimised through planning of deployment scenarios, selection learning-by-doing and scale economies. The sustained growth
of technologies and attention to the carbon intensity of displaced in PV capacity since the 1990s followed a series of incentive
power sources. As for any low-carbon generation technology, schemes starting with the German ‘1000 roof’ and ‘100,000
during the growth of manufacturing capacity, carbon emissions roof’ programmes in 1990 and 1999, respectively, the Japanese
will increase before net savings in CO2 emissions are achieved. ‘New Sunshine’ subsidies in 1993, the first Feed-in-Tariff (FiT)
Figure 8 shows the time dependent cumulative emissions due to schemes in Germany in 1999, and more recently by FiTs in other
Germany’s PV programme (realistic case: full line), demonstrating key European countries, notably Italy and Spain61 and, in 2010, the
that net carbon savings are made only after more than a decade UK. FiTs achieve stability of return on investment for households,
of experience. Moreover, net savings, for the same power businesses and power generators installing PV systems and have
generation profile, are made more quickly if a technology with become the preferred option relative to capital subsidies.

12 Briefing paper  No 11  January 2014 Solar power for CO2 mitigation
Grantham Institute for Climate Change    Imperial College London

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Solar power for CO2 mitigation Briefing paper  No 11  January 2014 13
 Imperial College London    Grantham Institute for Climate Change

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14 Briefing paper  No 11  January 2014 Solar power for CO2 mitigation
Grantham Institute for Climate Change    Imperial College London

48. C.J.M. Emmott et al. Life Cycle Analysis of an Off-Grid Solar Charging Kiosk Proc.
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51. International Energy Agency, Energy Technology Perspectives 2012, p.375. impact. Established in February
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Report IEA-PVPS T1-22:2013. over ten years from the Grantham
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53. N. Espinosa et al. A life cycle analysis of polymer solar cell modules prepared using roll-to-roll the Environment, the Institute’s
methods under ambient conditions, Solar Energy Mater. Solar Cells. 95, 1293-1302 (2010). researchers are developing both the
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The research, policy and outreach
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College London
60. W.G.J.H.M. van Sark et al. Accuracy of Progress Ratios Determined From Experience Curves: Consistently rated amongst the
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61. A. Jager-Waldau. Status of PV research, solar cell production and market implementation in institution with a reputation for
Japan, USA and the European Union. European Commission, Joint Research Centre, 2002 excellence in teaching and research
that attracts 13,000 students
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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 16, 5557-5566 (2012). international quality.
63. OECD Environmental Performance Reviews: Germany 2012 OECD Publishing (2012).
Innovative research at the College
64. P. H. Kobos et al. Technological and renewable energy costs: implications for US renewable
explores the interface between
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science, medicine, engineering
65. S. Avril et al. Photovoltaic energy policy: Financial estimation and performance comparison and business, delivering practical
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This commitment to the application
of research for the benefit of all
continues today, with current
focuses including interdisciplinary
collaborations to improve health in
Acknowledgements the UK and globally, tackle climate
change and develop clean and
The authors gratefully acknowledge Andreas Bett, and Cédric Philibert for reviewing the sustainable sources of energy.
manuscript, Chris Emmott, Alvin Chan and Sarah Whitmee for technical contributions, and
Simon Buckle and Emma Critchley for editing. www.imperial.ac.uk

Solar power for CO2 mitigation Briefing paper  No 11  January 2014 15
Imperial College London    Grantham Institute for Climate Change

Solar power for CO2 mitigation