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Photovoltaic Systems
Alex Cronin
Associate Professor
Physics and Optical Sciences
University of Arizona
1 MWpeak PV system
Requires (130 m)2 = 4.7 Acres of land
Up front Annual Payback
Cost
Benefit
period*
Money: 5 M$
0.2 M$ 25 yrs
Energy: 7 GWh
1.7 GWh 4 yrs
Water:
100 M gallons
15 M gallons 7 yrs
Financial Cost:
PV modules
$3 / watt
Mounting + conduit
$1 / watt
Inverter
$0.5 / watt
Labor + engineering $0.5 / watt
( 30% Federal Tax benefit )
( 8.5 /kwh for RECs )
PV Cost Reductions
Financial Benefit
Electricity generated annually in Tucson:
100
PV system added
November 2007
80
60
40
20
Year: 2005
Total: $754
Year: 2006
Total: $686
Year: 2007
Total: $555
Yr: 2008
Ttl: $159
0
Date (month)
cronin@physics.arizona.edu
kWh Generated
5000
4000
3000
2000
300 million more systems
like this (106 km )^2
could produce 0.4 TW
for 50 years.
1000
0
1/1/2008
7/1/2008
Date
1/1/2009
Finding:
Multiply by
4.8 hrs per day
to predict
energy yield
(year average
in Tucson)
www.physics.arizona.edu/~cronin/Solar/TEPweb
1 MWpeak PV system
Requires (130 m)2 = 4.7 Acres of land
Up front Annual Payback
Cost
Benefit
period*
Money: 5 M$
0.2 M$ 25 yrs
Energy: 7 GWh
1.7 GWh 4 yrs
Water:
100 M gallons
15 M gallons 7 yrs
1 MWpeak PV system
Requires (130 m)2 = 4.7 Acres of land
Up front Annual Payback
Cost
Benefit
period*
Money: 5 M$
0.2 M$ 25 yrs
Energy: 7 GWh
1.7 GWh 4 yrs
Water:
100 M gallons
15 M gallons 7 yrs
Water use:
For semiconductor Si, 10 gallons of water / sq-inch
uses HF, HCl, trichlorosilane (SiHCl 3), alcohols,
catalysts (Cu), heat, clean rooms
Figure Source:
One Ton of . . .
Steel: 62,000 gallons of water
Cement: 1,360 gallons
For an old SOLON tracker that holds 40
kw, there are 6 tons of steel and 50 tons of
cement.
11,000 gal / kw compare to:
129,000 gal/kw to fab.