Journal
SOLAR ENERGY MATERIALS AND SOLAR CELLS
Volume 95, Issue 12, Pages 3176-3180Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.solmat.2011.06.013
Keywords
Photovoltaics; Solar cell; Material constraint; Energy
Funding
- US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering [DE-FG02-09ER46597]
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The predicted energy demand will reach 28 TW by 2050 and 46 TW by 2100. The deployment of solar cells as a source of electricity will have to expand to a scale of tens of peak terawatts in order to become a noticeable source of energy in the future. Of the current commercial and developmental solar cell technologies, the majority have natural resource limitations that prevent them from reaching a terawatt scale. These limitations include high energy input for crystalline-Si cells, limited material production for GaAs cells, and material scarcity for CdTe. CIGS, dye-sensitized, crystalline-Si, and thin-film Si cells. In this paper, we examine these limitations under the best scenarios for CdTe, CIGS, GaAs, dye-sensitized, and crystalline-Si solar cells. Without significant technological breakthroughs, these technologies combined would meet only a few percentage points (similar to 2%) of our energy demand in 2100. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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