February 11, 2016 14:7 Solar Energy - 9in x 6in b2236-ch02 page 57

Fundamentals of Photovoltaic Cells and Systems 57

Combining Eqs. (25)–(27), it is straight forward to obtain a reasonably

accurate estimate of the annual energy output of a PV system as a function
of its performance ratio, nominal power and irradiation data:

Ep = PA,ST C × Yr × P R. (28)

6 Uses and World Market of PV Solar Energy

6.1 Overview on the Uses of PV Energy
Over its first decades of development, PV technology encountered many
niche applications where the conventional electric grid did not exist or
access to it was uneconomical, impractical or even impossible. Therefore,
the initial uses of PV systems were off-grid applications (supplying electri-
cal power to professional equipment, rural electrification or consumer prod-
ucts). In the first decade of the 21st century, this situation has changed and
now grid-connected applications (including utility owned or de-centralized
rooftop-mounted power plants) account for more than 80% of new systems
installed in the field.33 The driving force for this change has been the imple-
mentation of various incentives (in the form of special feed-in-tariffs, tax
rebates, green certificates,. . . ) in many countries to encourage the penetra-
tion of PV technology into the electric market. Figure 19 summarizes the
main application areas and uses of PV systems.

6.2 World PV Market

6.2.1 Size and historic evolution of the world PV market
Figure 20 shows the recent historic evolution of the global PV installed
capacity per world region.32–34 As of end of 2013, the world cumulated

Off-grid applications Grid-connected applications

Consumer products Professional Rural electrification Centralized Distributed

- Calculators - Satellites - Solar home systems - Power plants - Roof systems
- Watches - Telecommunication - Village grid - Sound barriers - Building integration
- Mobile phones - Navigation - Water supply - ... - ...
- Battery chargers - Remote monitoring - Irrigation
- Lights - Traffic signs - Street lighting
- Car ventilation - Parking meters - Medical cooling
- ... - ... - ...

Fig. 19. Application areas and uses of PV systems.

February 11, 2016 14:7 Solar Energy - 9in x 6in b2236-ch02 page 58

58 I. Rey-Stolle

139.8 GW
140

99.8 GW
Total PV Installed Capacity [GW]

Data for 2013 [GW]

120
EU 81,5

70.5 GW
100 Japan 13,6
USA 12,6
80
China 19,7

36.9 GW
22.9 GW
60 RoW 12,4

15.7 GW
9.6 GW
7.0 GW
5.4 GW

40
1.4 GW

1.8 GW

2.2 GW

2.8 GW

3.9 GW

20

0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
RoW China USA Japan EU

Fig. 20. Evolution of the global PV installed capacity worldwide.

Table 4: Top 5 countries in PV

installations by region as of Decem-
ber 2013.
Installed Capacity
Country [MW] [%]

1 Germany 35.765 26
2 China 19.720 14
3 Italy 18.074 13
4 Japan 13.599 10
5 USA 12.079 9

Total 99.237 71

PV installed capacity almost reached 140 GW, with 60% of such capacity
installed in the European Union.
In terms of the distribution of PV installations by country, Table 4
lists the top five countries as of the end of 2013, which constitute more
than 70% of the worldwide PV capacity.33 On the production side, Table 5
summarizes the PV cell production by country, also as of the end of 2013.33
Tables 4 and 5 show that while market concentration is in Europe, produc-
tion is in Asia (mostly in China).
February 11, 2016 14:7 Solar Energy - 9in x 6in b2236-ch02 page 59

Fundamentals of Photovoltaic Cells and Systems 59

Table 5: PV cell production

as of December 2013.

Region [MW] [%]

1 China 23.124 58
2 Taiwan 7.176 18
3 Japan 3.189 8
4 Malaysia 2.791 7
5 Germany 1.196 3

Total 37.476 94

100
90
Share of the PV market [%]

80
70
Data for 2010
60 c-Si 80%
50 a-Si 2%
40 CdTe 16%
30 CIGS 2%
20 CPV 0%
10
0
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

CPV CIGS CdTe a-Si c-Si

Fig. 21. Historic evolution of the share of solar cell production per technology and
expected trends until 2020. c-Si includes mono and multicrystalline silicon; CPV stands
for concentrator PV.

6.2.2 PV cell production by technology

Figure 21 shows the evolution and prediction of solar cell production by
technology from 1980 to 2020.

6.2.3 Evolution of costs of PV modules and PV electricity

Over the past decades, the PV industry has achieved remarkable price
decreases. The price of crystalline silicon PV modules has decreased by
around 20% each time the cumulative installed capacity has doubled (see
Fig. 22).35 This trend seems to be even more marked for CdTe where price
reductions close to 30% for each doubling of production have been observed.
February 11, 2016 14:7 Solar Energy - 9in x 6in b2236-ch02 page 60

60 I. Rey-Stolle

Fig. 22. PV module price experience curve for crystalline silicon and CdTe technology.

2010

2020
2030

Fig. 23. Evolution of the levelized cost of electricity for PV systems.

Figure 23 shows current and future Levelized Cost of Electricity

(LCOE), i.e. electricity generation costs, for large ground-mounted PV sys-
tems with PR = 85%. The data is based on the price reductions summarized
in Fig. 19 and forecasts that costs of PV per kWh will be below $0.20 for
almost any sunny place by 2020.34