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35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2169-2171, This work analyzes the current situation in the Spanish photovoltaic market in terms of profitability of investments for different system configurations: small plants (< 10 kW, typical in residential installations), large plants (some MW) and other systems (commercial, industrial, etc). In all the cases, the calculations assume the PV plants are grid-connected under free market conditions, with no incentives. Parameters such as return on investment and payback period have been calculated with the data collected from several sources. A software tool has been used in order to calculate the aforementioned figures. It can carry out sensitivity analysis, making it possible to study the influence of

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2199-2204, Within a collaborative research project relating to solar technology and specifically to BIPV, building integrated PV systems (project Construct PV, FP7-ENERGY-2011-2), an important part awaits the effective communication of research results to overcome non technological barriers and the transfer of training and information to a wide range of users and target audience. In this context, new communication strategies, tools and above all new methods of education and training can be implemented in a new way, recognizing an added value of ICT, information and communication technologies, and Web-based methods to stimulate a discussion on the important role of solar energy in buildings and to promote two-way exchange of knowledge, from research to public and from public to research process. Computer-mediated activities along with real-time participatory ITC tools were used in an interactive Webinar to stimulate and encourage participation and, in turn, to gather useful feedback for the project. Furthermore, Web-based utilities (a BIPV Web-library and Web-design tool), were developed as useful tools dedicated to architects, engineers, manufacturers, installers and other interested stakeholders. This paper presents an applied example of successful collaboration between research and education, aimed at creating greater links strengthening the knowledge and competence of relevant stakeholders in solar energy.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2164-2168, Today photovoltaics (PV) has become one of the most cost-effective forms of electricity production globally and in some regions is already the most competitive unsubsidised form of electricity. Despite positive cost and growing developments, European PV manufacturers are facing a decline in production due to competition from third countries. This decrease in the competitiveness of European PV actors is due to several factors, including a greater fragmentation of the value chain compared to competing actors. Chinese manufacturers have in particular been able to achieve synergies, economies of scale and information sharing throughout the value chain. SUPER PV is a collaborative European-funded project initiated in 2018 by 26 partners in reaction to this trend. Together, they target a significant LCOE reduction (26%-37%) for European-made PV by adopting a hybrid approach combining technological innovations and data management methods.

As the share of PV in the energy system increases, electricity storage becomes more important. In addition to stationary storages, electric vehicles (EVs) offer a means for storing solar electricity. With storage, the economically viable sizing of a PV system is considerably larger. Currently, the LCOE for a residential PV + storage system investment is already lower than the value of the generated PV electricity in European countries with high retail electricity prices like Germany and Italy with reasonable interest rates. In countries with low retail electricity prices like Finland, a PV investment without storage starts now to be profitable. The economically optimal sizing of the storage system in relation to the PV system (kWh of storage per kWp of PV) will increase in the future because storage system prices are decreasing faster than PV system prices.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2149-2152, The electricity market landscape is changing because the growth in renewable energy is increasing the share of intermittent electricity and price volatility in the power system. In this framework, the market integration of intermittent electricity from renewable energy sources cannot be achieved by single individual, commercial or domestic consumers since they would only have a limited impact. It is only through a coordinated steering of vast amounts and types of consumers and producers that the use of distributed generation, demand side management and energy storage can be effective. This coordination action can be performed by facilitators such as renewable energy aggregators, which can accelerate the integration of intermittent electricity sources, enhance demand flexibility and decrease the reliance on renewable energy support schemes.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2172-2177, In this study, we use a geographical information systems (GIS)-framework—the United Kingdom Photovoltaics Database (UKPVD) to analyze spatial PV deployment, domestic and nondomestic electricity demand, rurality (as a proxy of building and population density), at a resolution of around 600 households. We use this framework to identify four representative rurality contexts which account for ~95% of UK households. Using a Statistical Distribution Network Design and Investment model and making use of network asset data for the Southwest of England as a representative case, we calculate additional network upgrade costs due to load growth and increased PV penetration in representative networks in each of these contexts. We calculate additional costs for a range of PV deployment scenarios and sets of flexibility measures, including storage and demand side management. Trends in network upgrade costs and savings associated with storage and demand side management are broadly similar across rurality contexts, although there are quantitative differences. Up to 2030, network upgrade costs are chiefly associated with avoided investment in low voltage network infrastructure to mitigate voltage impacts of PV. Post-2030, as peak demand rises, upgrades to high voltage networks to accommodate higher power flow begin to dominate. The majority of unavoided network upgrade costs after flexibility measures are installed from the period from 2030 are associated with voltage regulation on the low voltage network to accommodate PV deployment, which modelled levels of storage and demand side management are unable to mitigate.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2122-2125, In the changing electricity markets in Europe emphasis is put by the European Commission on enlarging the role of prosumers, i.e. consumers that also generate electricity using photovoltaics (PV). The aim of the recently started PV-Prosumers4Grid project is to develop and implement innovative self-consumption and aggregation concepts and business models for PV prosumers that will help integrating sustainable and competitive electricity from PV in the electricity system. This paper presents the concepts of prosumerism, and identifies three different PV prosumers options based on system boundaries: group 1, single direct use; group 2, local collective use; group 3, district power model. A country analysis has been made showing that prosumption in Europe is legally feasible for all countries for single direct use, while this is not the case for collective use, either local or in a district. Finally, a cash-flow model has been developed that allows stakeholders in all countries to perform a cost-benefit analysis taking into account energy demand and sources (heatpump, EV) and PV electricity generation.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2158-2160, We evaluate power losses and gains resulting from the integration of Rooftop Photovoltaic (RPV) systems into the power grid, within scenarios where the RPV power is either fed back to the grid or consumed “behind the meter”. Power losses resulting from feeding RPV power to the grid are calculated relative to the distance of the site of power generation to the distribution feeder, using GIS data. When the power generated by RPV systems is consumed “behind the meter”, this loss is turned into an equivalent power gain. Early results for 65,536 buildings in Qatar with the assumed integration of a 5kW PV system per building show yearly power losses/gains of 7020MWh. Simulations of residential PV adoption show that these power gains have a mild but distinctive effect, leading to a 1.3% increase in adoption rate. The study suggests that overall power losses/gains are modest, providing mild support for a “behind the meter” PV integration solution.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2104-2108, The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference negotiated a global agreement on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Europe must transform its energy system from mainly fossil power plants to renewable ones in order to reach the climate change mitigation goals by 2050. In particular, wind turbines, photovoltaic systems and the use of biomass can contribute to fulfill the demand of residential, commercial and industrial consumers regarding electric power, heat and transportation. We have developed a simulation model to derive the energy production, exchange and demand in 39 European countries taking different scenarios of bioenergy potential usage into account. Annually, 31.7 GW/a of onshore wind turbines, 35.9 GW/a of offshore wind turbines and 100.2 GW/a photovoltaic systems (roof-top and ground-mounted) have to be installed to transform the European energy systems by 2050. The total installed power plant capacity must increase from 0.9 TW in 2017 to 5.7 TW in case of 40 percent usage of the biomass potential. Out model shows that the transformation process of the energy system in Europe must be accelerated significantly. Then, the climate change mitigation goals can be reached.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2182-2187, An Agent-Based Model (ABM) is developed in Netlogo as a tool for evaluating impacts of subsidies on temporal diffusion of PV microgeneration systems in a rural developing community. ABMs model individual micro entities within a complex system and the rules that govern the interactions between them within the system, to capture the macro-effects of such interactions. The model simulates how introduction of subsidies would influence households’ electrification choices within a given rural developing community over a given period, given various electrification options. Survey-gathered data from Kendu Bay area of rural Western Kenya is used to inform the model. Results show that introduction of capital-based and energy-based subsidies would lead to significant increases in PV installations, which in turn translate into more formations of communal grids (minigrids and microgrids). Observations made from this study can be applied to many similar locations in sub-Saharan Africa. But most importantly, the model could be used by policy-makers in formulating rural electrification policies.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2153-2157, There is a growing interest in community-owned large-scale solar projects. However, if large amounts of electricity generated by these PV installations are not directly consumed by the local loads, grid congestion can arise, due to constrains in the local electricity network. This paper explores when does grid congestion start to occur and whether battery storage systems can be an economically feasible solution to mitigate this problem, as an alternative to grid reinforcement measures. In addition, a proper sizing of the battery storage with respect to solar park nominal capacities is assessed, based on simulations and benchmark study of current practices.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2138-2142, Decarbonising the EU energy system will require that renewables provide most, if not all, of electric power, with photovoltaics (PV) contributing a substantial share. At terawatt-scale deployment levels, the surface area used for PV installations will be large in absolute terms, but not necessarily a large percentage of available area. The study uses a unique combination of energy system scenarios, PV energy yield modelling and high resolution land-use data to analyse the impact for the European Union member states. The results show that future PV land requirements are a small percentage of overall area in most countries, even under deep-decarbonisation scenarios. Rooftops can contribute to some extent, but a small percentage of land currently classified as agricultural is likely to be needed. Use of set-aside land and degraded lands as well as dual-use approaches can mitigate the impact.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2161-2163, In the recent years Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) has gained a lot of attention, but little information is available about BIPV in Latin America and Suriname, therefore this paper aims at presenting a status overview of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) in the Latin America and Suriname. The application of BIPV happens currently only on small scale in some countries of Latin America, namely in Brazil, Columbia and Chile. BIPV has still not been applied in the built environment in Suriname while the application of rooftop Building Added PV (BAPV) is growing currently. However given the fact that the high initial installation cost of rooftop BAPV is still a financial barrier at this moment for the citizens in Suriname BIPV will not emerge at present but hopefully in the future.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2193-2198, This study presents a descriptive analysis, from a technical perspective, of a rural electrification project managed by sub-national government entities in developing countries. It was conducted through a case study applied to a project involving 26 energy access solutions implemented through photovoltaic technology. The analysis is based on information gathered from technical inspections performed three years after the commissioning of the project, in consideration of the guidelines for guaranteeing the quality of stand-alone photovoltaic systems proposed by the International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power System Programme. The article reveals that despite the fact that most of the solutions have functioned within acceptable margins, a need to improve this type of project in all of the sectors involved; public, business and citizen, is detected. The lessons learned and proposals for improvement are also presented, with the overall aim being for projects of this type, current and future, to move towards success and sustainability with public management, the competence of local professionals and the socio-technical aspects of the inhabitants playing an essential role.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2143-2148, In this work, by addressing the different phases in the realization of a solar project, we use images to make concrete examples and drive a parallel between the market dynamics happened in Europe in the recent past (15-5 years) and what is presently happening in several African countries today. A strong focus on quality should enable the involvement of financial institutions (banks, microcredit and insurances) in the solar sector. Therefore, promoting a virtuous cycle leading to project risks’ mitigation, facilitation of access to credit and increase perception and awareness in solar electricity. In short, making solar projects bankable. In our vision, a multi-step approach to the bankability of solar projects in the rooftop sector should be articulated as follows: (1) focus on international standards (and best practices) whenever is possible; (2) adoption/development of high quality training to achieve a minimum level of knowledge/skills for professionals and trigger the learning processes that are of great relevance to the industry; (3) implement at local level institutions able to perform minimal quality checks of components (e.g. testing laboratories) and systems acting as a trustable and respected third party; (4) design incentive schemes or clear regulations aimed at avoiding the unhealthy market dynamics that have characterized the early adoption of this technology in Europe.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2178-2181, European countries have embraced a transition to renewable sources of energy at unprecedented scale. In the 1990s, few achieved a renewable share exceeding 5% of their gross energy consumption. Today, all 28 EU member states exceed that figure, in many instances by a considerable margin, as in the case of Austria, Denmark, Finland, Latvia and Sweden, ranging over 30 % of gross final energy consumption. However, despite the EU remains on track to reach its 20% renewable energy share target for 2020, achieving more ambitious longer-term target of at least 27% across the Union by 2030 will continue to require persistent and joined up efforts directed at seeking out innovative approaches, even more when the rate of renewable energy growth is slowing down in 2016 (to 5.9%) compared with the average annual rate of growth between 2005 and 2014 (6.7 %)[1]. This deceleration is partly attributed to the challenges of renewable energy project developers to finance their projects. Reduced access to conventional financing options over the past few years has triggered innovative financing schemes to emerge, with crowdfunding attracting a lot of attention. The CrowdFundRES project, identified the vast potential of crowdfunding for filling part of the funding gap that RES project developers have been experiencing by bringing them closer to citizens who are willing to participate as contributors through the use of online crowdfunding platforms. Crowdfunding can play an important role in the energy transition. With sufficient awareness of its potential among all stakeholders, crowdfunding is well matched to help address resulting funding gaps, provided we attract and sustain high-quality crowdfunding platforms targeted at renewable energy investment, raise awareness among project developers of the suitability of crowdfunding as an additional source of finance, better understand the behavior of individual retail investors and their interest in crowdfunding renewable energy projects, and ensure that the regulatory governance of the range of marketplaces that have emerged is fit for purpose to allow further scaling up across Europe, and without stifling market forces or ongoing innovation in the sector. The project ran successfully for 3 years, co-funded by the EU under the Horizon 2020 programme. During the 3 years of project implementation, from February 2015 to January 2018, CrowdFundRES successfully achieved the following objectives: • Deepening understanding of the adoption of crowdfunding for financing RES projects through a qualitative and quantitative analysis and online surveys. • Performing regulatory analysis and case studies to identify the challenges faced by the application of crowdfunding for RES projects in Europe. • Developing and applying guidelines aiming at supporting more effective practices for crowdfunding platforms, project developers and investors. • Formulating policy recommendations to help improve the market and regulatory framework for crowdfunding and renewables in Europe. • Promoting the crowdfunding concept and its advantages among those who could contribute or raise funds. CrowdFundRES involves a consortium of renewables project developers, crowdfunding platforms, industry organisations, legal specialists and experts in the sector in order to help unleash the potential of crowdfunding for renewables development. The partnership has been led by WIP Renewable Energies (DE) and involved fourteen partners across six EU member states, representing stakeholders and market actors that are either directly or indirectly involved to crowdfunding. The project partners include the European Crowdfunding Network (BE) and four of the most active crowdfunding platforms for RES projects in Europe, Abundance (GB), Green Crowding/Bettervest(DE), Lumo(FR) and OnePlanetCrowd(NL). Three project developers with projects of different technological and geographical focus around Europe, BNRG Renewables (IE), Valorem (FR) and REG (JE). The consortium was completed by Solar Power Europe (BE), the University of Dundee (GB), Osborne Clark

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2188-2192, SOLAR-ERA.NET is a network that brings together more than 20 RTD and innovation programmes in the field of solar electricity technologies in the European Research Area. The network of national and regional funding organisations has been established in order to increase transnational cooperation between RTD and innovation programmes and to contribute to achieving the objectives of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) through dedicated transnational activities (especially transnational calls). Through the support of the funding organisations, some 60 MEUR have been mobilised for transnational RTD and innovation projects through the first four joint calls carried out. SOLAR-ERA.NET was an EU funded FP7 project running from 2012 to 2016. Within the H2020, the network continues to work in the ERA-NET Cofund scheme. In this contribution, results are presented for the transnational SOLAR-ERA.NET calls.

35th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2109-2121, The installed capacity of photovoltaics (PV) shows a constant growth. The major part of PV is installed in highly developed countries. Further, there is an increasing number of emerging markets that show high growth rates of cumulative and annual PV installations. However, reliable installation rates for PV are available only for a limited number of countries. Not only in emerging markets, even for some developed countries exact numbers of cumulative PV installation are rarely available. For the end of 2017 IRENA reports 384.6 GWp of globally installed PV capacity, giving clear national specific data for 156 countries. IEA PVPS provides a number of 402.50 GWp installed by providing detailed data for 24 countries. This paper gives an overview of installed PV capacities for all countries in the world based on the examination of publicly accessible data. Furthermore, an analysis of the development of cumulative PV installations in recent years is given. Resulting from this evaluation, PV installations are localised in 196 countries, representing 402.15 GWp.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2875-2878, The present study is aimed at giving an update on patent activities in the photovoltaics (PV) field covering the past 45 years. In this study, the number of patent applications published during this time period, per year and for the whole period, in several of the most relevant solar cell technologies is analysed. Patent filing figures and the origin of patent applications are shown for the different types of solar cells including polymer and organic solar cells, and dye sensitized solar cells.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2866-2869, Market inventories have been made since fall 2011 for modules, inverters, and systems that are available for purchase in the Netherlands to provide the fast growing Dutch market with proper market information. The most recent inventory was made in December 2016. After the drop in module price in 2012 the average selling price of modules has been found to stabilize, while inverter prices continue to decrease. PV system prices have decreased considerably by ~20% since 2011, with some fluctuations. December 2016 average selling prices are 1.109 !/Wp and 0.29 !/Wp for modules and inverters, respectively, with 10-15% lower price for modules from China. System prices have seen a temporary increase mid 2013 and 2016. Average installation costs amount to 0.34 !/Wp. Grid parity is obvious: for a residential 2.5 kWp system the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is calculated to be 0.133 !/kWh for a system price of 1.77 !/Wp (including installation), based on an energy yield of 900 kWh/kWp, 25 years system lifetime, 3% discount rate, and 1% operation and maintenance (O&M) cost.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2921-2925, The project Sustainable School proposed by evaluating the environmental performance of the State High School Padre Nunes, in the City of Gravataí, State of Rio Grande do Sul, the preparation of a report containing suggestions for action in the management, teaching and school extension to provide support taking decisions by the school administration for the purpose of reducing the environmental impact of their actions and the creation of a map bringing together all the proposed changes in the school environment, including sustainable structures as educators elements. Building a tank with a capacity of 16 thousand liters of rainwater was carried out, construction of a solar thermal panel as water heaters with a capacity of 146 liters of clean water for use in school kitchen, installation of a photovoltaic module supply the pressurize for non-potable water distribution network supplied by the rainwater tank, several interventions to revitalize the school yard as educational mosaics and paintings, conducting agro-ecological planting structures as vertical gardens, herb spiral, compost, among others. In addition, training workshops were carried out with the scholarship students and the courses of different levels.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2853-2857, Renewable energy installations stimulate the economy through the monetary flows of salaries, profits and taxes, as well as job creation. The WeBEE model created by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) to quantify value added and employment effects generated by RE technologies in Germany was adapted to reflect the Dutch economy. It was then used to calculate the value-added to the Dutch economy due to the photovoltaic (PV) in 2015, the most recent year for which complete economic data was available. To understand how the value added is distributed, it is broken down into components on two levels: the adminstrative level, i.e., the municipal, provincial and national level; as well as on the level of value chain elements, such as manufacturing, planning or installation.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2913-2916, The objective of this work is to study and evaluate the impacts and challenges of the insertion of distributed generation (DG) linked to photovoltaic (PV) technology in Brazil and to verify its impact in a residence energy bill. The Brazilian panorama of the generation PV, the obstacles for its implantation, as well as its technical and regulatory solutions are analyzed. Since 2012 there was an increase in the installation of DG due to regulatory changes. The exemption from taxes such as PIS/COFINS and ICMS caused a growth of 233% in PV installations between 2015- 2016. In relation to tariff changes, the appearance of the white tariff in 2018 may negatively influence the growth of PV photovoltaic, because, for those who adopt the tariff, it would reduce the off-peak energy offset credit, being in this period of the day the biggest PV generation. Thus, it will reduce the savings of its monthly bill in relation to the conventional tariff. The white tariff comes as a financial stimulus to the consumers change their load curve, shifting their maximum demand out of the peak hours, however it reduces the economy generated by the DG PV, because the reduction of the residential energy bill with the installation of DG PV is 90% in relation to the conventional tariff, however, the reduction of the energy bill with the change of habits added to DG FV and with the white tariff is 78%. Thus, the implementation of DG PV is directly linked to its cost and the consumer who choose to install DG PV should remain with the conventional tariff.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2822-2826, A new agent-based model was used to investigate the effect of feed-in tariffs on the adoption of smallscale solar photovoltaic arrays by households in Great Britain. Both historical (2010-2016) and future (2016-2021) scenarios are modelled, allowing comparison with actual installation data and near-future projections. Agent-based models provide a natural modelling paradigm to include population heterogeneity, non-optimization decision-making and the effect of a social network. Observed installation patterns in the period 2010-2016 can be modelled accurately by considering decision-making based on four factors: household income, the payback period of the investment in the array, the number of adopters in a household’s social network, and the capital cost of the installation. The level of feedin tariffs significantly affects the adoption rate, so a realistic historical subsidy scenario was compared with several alternative scenarios. This indicates that an improved strategy for reducing feed-in tariffs over time could have given higher deployment at lower cost. The model is also used to project future deployment considering the effect of different feed-in tariff levels, electricity prices, and the cost of photovoltaics.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2904-2908, This article starts with the presentation of the first development stages of PV production in Greece and the corresponding evolution and changes in the regulatory framework in the last years, along with the effects on the electricity systems and the consumers. The new policy and regulatory framework for RES deployment that has been recently developed in the country is then analyzed, within the framework of the energy market transformation and the radical modifications towards the EU target model. The organization, implementation and results of the first pilot auction for PV plants are then briefly discussed, followed by the regulatory framework for the regular competitive auctions for new projects that is being prepared, in order to be able to start this procedure early the next year 2018, based on a sliding feed-in-premium concept. The paper closes with the prospects of the PV production and corresponding market in Greece the next decades.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2861-2865, Photovoltaic-powered reverse osmosis (PVRO) desalination can potentially be the solution to two major global issues: water and energy. This technique not only increases water supply but also decreases the dependency on fossil fuels. Many countries like Morocco today face the problem of water stress, which has become a crucial issue for the government. The brackish underground water reserves are estimated at about 500 million m3 with a salinity of 0.5 to 16 g L-1. This paper presents a computerized approach based on operations research methods for evaluating the potential of using PVRO desalinated brackish water in agriculture, as part of investigating solutions to the problem of abandoned or poorly exploited arable land due to freshwater shortages. It is based on a 4-step process: (1) Selection and collection of information on the study area, (2) Determination of possible crops, (3) Selection of energy source and calculation of water production specific cost, and (4) Determination of the optimal operating plan and evaluation of the gain potential. The methodology was applied to Jaidate County (Rhamna Province, Morocco), located in a saline geological zone, where 206 hectares of land is available for farming. The results showed that the PVRO desalinated brackish water in agriculture (1,528 m3 per day) requires an investment of 17,500,000 MAD (about 1,564,000 €) with a water specific cost of 5.1 MAD m-3 (about 0.46 € m-3). The payback period is between 5.8 to 8.3 years. The profitability is 96 to 141% with solar energy according to the financing scenario, 56 to 96% with utility grid and 42 to 65% with electricity produced by a diesel generator. The PVRO unit will generate a gain potential of 2,500,000 MAD (about 223,425 €) or 1,700,000 MAD (about 151,930 €) with corn and oat as crops, according to the financing scenario.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2895-2899, As lack of education is seen as one of the barriers for BIPV deployment, the Dem4BIPV project (www.dem4bipv.eu/) aims to develop innovative training material for higher education in building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV). This paper presents the results of a survey that was conducted among BIPV stakeholders with the aim to identify major knowledge gaps in education and target audiences as well as teaching goals. From that, potential courses dedicated to the needs of each target audience related to BIPV are developed. It aims to provide modular content and a schedule for a 10 week, halftime course (7.5 ECTS).

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2879-2881, 2016 was another record year for the solar industry, with yearly installations reaching 75 GWp, a global capacity installed exceeding 300 GWp, and power-purchase-agreement (PPA) prices beneath the symbolic value of $30/MWh. The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) generation is becoming a key metric to understand the economic and technological evolutions of solar energy. It has been the subject of numerous studies and is used by developers and investors to assess project worth. This paper presents our LCOE model for a 10-MWp ground-mount solar plant, using the results of interviews conducted with the stakeholders of the field during 2016-2017. Representative values for the capital investment, operating costs and means of financing were obtained, and the study focused on showing the impact of local factors, not only climatic, but also local economic and regulatory constraints. The results obtained for the LCOE varied between 30 and 70 €/MWh according to location showing good agreement with prices announced as part of 2016-2017 PPAs. In 2030, we estimate that this range will continue to decrease to reach values between 20 and 40 €/MWh with improvements due to increases in module efficiency, the increasing use of trackers and innovations such as bifacial modules.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2775-2782, Despite a rise in installed Solar PV generation capacity worldwide, the deployment of utility-scale solar PV power plants can be challenging because some projects may not meet certain required standards to obtain financial support. Furthermore, there is a general perception of high technology risk, cumbersome administrative procedures, insufficient transparency, as well as limited access to financing instruments. In some regions, smaller project developers are especially exposed since the recent experience of developing utility-scale solar projects still largely was with large companies and utilities. To mitigate project failure, project development guidelines must become more easily available. This paper emphasizes the importance of the early stages of a Solar PV project development and how they are connected to reducing the risk of project failure. The paper addresses the key issues encountered during a typical development of a utility-scale solar PV project and provide key recommendations to develop a bankable solar PV project proposal.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2870-2874, This paper studies the way in which the regulatory framework and market rules affect the feasibility of on-site PV generation for large industrial units. In most European markets net metering and feed-in tariffs for self-consumed electricity are not possible or are being phased out, providing an incentive to the industry for becoming more flexible in the way electricity is consumed in order to maximise the percentage of the variable electricity generated on-site that is self-consumed. The electricity cost for the industry is the benchmark for PV or any other on-site generation technology and in general on-site solar energy is competitive with that. However, as the regulation develops further, the exemptions of paying the regulated charges for the electricity that is self-consumed are phased out. Also the cost of flexibility required to self-consume all variable on-site generation has to be added to the LCOE of solar electricity, moving it further away from the competitiveness benchmark. Still, as the LCOE of solar electricity reduces continuously mostly due to the reduction of PV system costs, it becomes competitive for more and more users in more and more target markets.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2794-2807, The installed capacity of photovoltaics (PV) shows a constant growth. The major part of PV is installed in highly developed countries. Further, there is an increasing number of emerging markets that show high growth rates of cumulative and annual PV installations. However, reliable installation rates for PV are available only for a small number of countries. Not only in emerging markets, even for some developed countries exact numbers of cumulative PV installation are rarely available. For the end of 2016 IRENA reports 2900.98 GWp of globally installed PV capacity, giving clear national specific data for 147 countries. IEA PVPS provides a number of 303.00 GWp installed by providing detailed data for 30 countries. This paper gives an overview of installed PV capacities for all countries in the world based on the examination of publically accessible data. Furthermore, an analysis of the development of cumulative PV installations in recent years is given. Resulting from this evaluation, PV installations are localized in 196 countries, representing 305.78 GWp.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2783-2789, Solar photovoltaics (PV) is becoming the cheapest form of electricity generation in many sunny countries around the world. In some European countries with moderate annual solar irradiation, true competitiveness of solar PV has not yet been reached in all market segments. However, this competitiveness might be enhanced by using electricity storage. The challenge for PV generation is that it does not always match the electricity consumption. Especially in residential PV installations, a large share of the self-produced solar electricity cannot be immediately consumed locally, and is fed to the grid with very low remuneration. With storage, the share of PV self-consumption can be increased which could lead to a better business case for the prosumer. Currently, the average price of battery storage is still too high in most cases to make a PV system with storage competitive against PV without storage. However, in countries with high retail electricity price, like Italy and Germany, PV with storage is already becoming competitive. The continuing cost decrease of battery storage will soon make it a feasible option in more countries and will allow a higher share of PV generation in the energy system.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2909-2912, In this work we present the result of a collaboration between the Polytechnic Schools of Dakar (ESP) and Lausanne (EPFL) on the testing and monitoring of solar photovoltaic modules. The collaboration has involved the exchange of knowledge, methodologies and data, and, in particular, the analysis of the aging of PV modules exposed to the hot semi-arid climate of Dakar for eight years. With the aim of promoting a focus on quality and reliability, the long-term goal of the collaboration would be to set-up a testing laboratory for PV modules and systems in Dakar and a training center. The testing laboratory will be working in close collaboration with the University and should potentially have a “lean” and easy-replicable structure. The implementation of a third-party institution able to assess independently the quality of components and support system developers and installers in the design, commissioning and maintenance of PV projects is crucial to promote a “sustainable” diffusion of solar electricity in Africa, particularly when considering the residential and commercial/industrial rooftop PV market segment. By minimizing risk, focus on quality should promote a virtuous cycle leading to: (1) mitigation of financing costs of solar projects, therefore, considerably reducing the overall costs of this technology, (2) increase positive perception and awareness about PV.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2888-2894, FP7-CHEETAH is a combination of a collaborative project (CP) and a coordination and support action (CSA), receiving funding from the European Union under grant agreement No 609788. The project aims at solving specific R&D issues to overcome fragmentation of European PV R&D and to accelerate the industrialization of innovations by intensifying the collaboration between R&D providers and industry. This proceeding reports on the strategy and key tools brought by the CHEETAH project to improve the state of the art in knowledge exchange on PV RTD. Its CHEETAH Knowledge Exchange Platform (KEP) features a dynamic database, a powerful build-in search engine, the dedicated e-learning platform for on-line meetings with internal and external stakeholders, webinars, on-line tests and experiments. The portal profits from the best practice in more efficient social and professional networks web portal by representing a significant step forward in knowledge exchange for the European photovoltaics community to support training, share knowledge and research infrastructures and foster collaboration opportunities at EU scale.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2808-2814, Over 2015-16, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency ran a competitive reverse auction process to provide up to AU$100M grant funding for utility-scale solar photovoltaic projects in Australia, aimed at stimulating the utility-scale solar market in the country, building local capacity, and reducing long-term costs. Over an 18-month period, ARENA evaluated more than 75 project proposals with a large spread in $/W costs, and used multiple selection criteria and phases to arrive at 12 projects that were provided funding for a total of 492 MWac. The use of multiple selection criteria (rather than a pure focus on cost) ensured that the long-term financial viability of the projects were considered alongside cost-competitiveness. As a result, all funded projects reached financial close by May 2017, less than 18 months after the competitive round was launched, and started construction shortly after. Drivers for success for similar reverse auctions are discussed, highlighting the benefits of an established network of due diligence providers, previous internal experience with similar projects and a market-driven approach. The funding round design and previous ARENA experience reduced the need for ARENA grant support from an expected AU$0.5/W (and AU$1.6/W in 2014) to AU$0.18/W for successful applicants under the round. The utility-scale solar market in Australia has since demonstrated the ability to secure financing and reduce total system costs without any further need for grant funding support.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2858-2860, This study evaluates the cost utility of various fuel-mix strategies in Qatar to maximize savings while meeting the country’s solar energy adoption targets. We use nonlinear programming (NLP) to optimize the relative shares of oil and gas to be displaced by solar energy with reference to savings. In view of plummeting costs for solar photovoltaic (PV) energy, we find that displacing domestic use of oil and natural gas with solar energy in Qatar is costeffective in most hydrocarbon price scenarios. Moreover, we find that it is more economical to displace more oil when oil prices are higher (above $88/bbl) and to displace more gas at lower oil prices. Based on our findings, we recommend that Qatar curtail electricity subsidies by aligning investments with return opportunities based on oil prices. Moreover, we recommend avoiding further expansions in gas-fired power plants and instead investing in electric vehicle infrastructure to continue promoting the growth of solar energy.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2900-2903, In line with the “Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy (2014-2020)” (2014/C 200/01), Greece run a pilot tender in 2016 for a 5% of the total Renewable Energy Sources’ (RES) capacity which was to be installed within the period 2015-2016. The purpose of this paper is to present the procedure and the results of the pilot tender for photovoltaic installations which took place in Greece in 2016. A specific innovative electronic platform was developed to simplify the procedure, secure its accuracy and transparency and increase the competitiveness with the use of an electronic auction. The main goal is to adopt the procedure as a best practice in the future tenders for RES installations.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2827-2836, While Germany has led the market in photovoltaic (PV) implementation throughout the last decade, there has been increasing criticism of PV support policies due to their high cost. Although declining, the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from PV is still above the German wholesale electricity price. However, using LCOE as an evaluation yardstick falls short in at least two respects: it neither takes into account integration costs rising with PV penetration (i.e. undervaluing its actual cost), nor avoided externalities of replacing conventional for renewable generation (social cost overvaluation). We thus calculate the social profitability of PV in Germany by including not only private costs and benefits, but also integration costs and avoided externalities, using the internal rate of return and the profitability index as indicators. Our results show that when these factors are considered, PV investments - up to a penetration level of at least 15% - have a social profitability above 10% at the lower bound of the social cost of carbon (150 €/tCO2), and one that is at least positive up to that penetration level if the social cost of carbon were only 50 €/tCO2. Results also show the level of private profitability if all externalities were internalized, and assert that subsidies are justified in order to align private and social profitability. The proposed method could be used as a complementary indicator to private profitability by public institutions, development banks and companies with social responsibility values.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2815-2821, This paper provides an approach to calculate the technical and economic potential for photovoltaic (PV) power generation in Lebanon and Jordan as an initial attempt to regionally quantify energy. The technical potential was estimated using analytical and GIS (Geographic Information System) based methods having sets of constraints and assumptions. Moreover, the economic potential is also estimated using GIS. The results of this study indicate a calculated technical potential with a total of 21330 TWh/a in both Lebanon and Jordan compared to the analytically calculated technical potential of 20941 TWh/a. As for the economically feasible energy production, the expected total electricity production is 596 TWh/a. The GIS method provides a regional visualization of the potentials on the map showing regions with high and low potentials. Having projects in the PV sector can clearly cover a significant share of the demand, knowing that the economic potential in this approach shows an energy production with an order of magnitude higher than the total electricity demand of 26.7 TWh/a. The concepts of technology readiness level (TRL) together with the results obtained from the study motivate the introduction of a new concept in standardizing PV installed capacity maturities called Regional Readiness Levels (RRL). The RRL notion ranks regions according to parameters based on market potential of PV, aiming to overcome communication barriers within the PV community.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2790-2793, We are currently seeing a deceleration of renewable energy growth in Europe. This is partly attributed to the challenges for financing renewable energy projects. Reduced access to conventional financing options over the past few years has triggered innovative financing schemes to emerge, with crowdfunding attracting a lot of attention. The project CrowdFundRES recognises the vast potential of crowdfunding for financing renewable energy projects and brings together the three following target groups: renewable energy project developers, citizen investing their savings in renewable energy projects and crowdfunding platforms acting as intermediaries between the public and the project developers.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2844-2848, CHEETAH is an FP7 integrated research project on photovoltaics funded by the European Commission and was initiated by EERA PV. This project is structured into two type of activities: Coordinative and Support actions (CSA) and Joint Research activities (JRA). The CSA focuses on the creation of a long term collaborative platform by developing tools for knowledge sharing, e-learning platforms for training and education, mobility between researchers, efficient use of infrastructures and promoting best practices and standards. The JRA focuses on developing new concepts and technologies for wafer-based crystalline silicon PV (modules with thin cells < 100 micron), thin-film PV (advanced light management) and organic PV (very low-cost barriers), resulting in reduced cost of environmentally benign/abundant/non-toxic materials and increased module performance. This paper gives a summary of the main achievements of this project for the two categories of activities.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2917-2920, The service life estimation in the photovoltaic (PV) industry is yet in its infancy, requiring both underpinning science and trained personnel to reduce costs of energy. An unmet industrial requirement is an accelerated and operating environment specific, service life time and energy yield assessment. SOLAR-TRAIN qualifies early stage researchers (ESRs) in the field of PV durability as part of a highly innovative, multi-disciplinary project meeting industry requirements. The research objective is to develop novel and validated models for the service life time and energy prediction of PV modules and systems. The elements to this puzzle are researched in the frame of 14 PhD projects with individual areas of focus, ranging from investigations on climatic degradation factors, through to research on material level, simulations and modelling of energy yield and life time. The research projects are enhanced by an innovative training scheme in close cooperation with industry. This inter-sectoral approach provides excellent theoretical and technical background as well as immersion in different business sectors and career mentoring.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2837-2839, Paper is presenting developments of Lithuanian PV sector in the last two programming periods demonstrating efficient collaboration between national RTD system players with competencies in material research and businesses willing to develop innovative PV business. Paper presents bottom up approach of PV cluster development integrating RTD and industrial partners with further introduction of the open access dedicated to PV RTD infrastructure for testing and industrial scale research. Paper is discussing impact of governmental support through country smart specialization priorities for PV sector competitiveness and ability to survive market pressure and is presenting examples of successful implementation cluster based activities leading to novel competitive products introduction.

In the framework of increasingly demanding legislation related to energy performance in buildings, the integration of photovoltaic systems in the building skin offers many possibilities. However, a continuous development of the building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) market in the next years necessarily demands the compliance with strict requirements in terms of design flexibility, aesthetics, durability, cost reduction, grid integration, testing standards and operation & maintenance. Within this context, a European consortium of 15 partners is developing the H2020 PVSITES project, “BIPV technologies and systems for large-scale market deployment”. The project will demonstrate an ambitious set of BIPV solutions, specially tailored to provide a comprehensive and robust answer to market demands. This paper focuses on some of the major results achieved at the time of writing. These include a detailed BIPV market and regulatory framework analysis and recommendations for the standardization of BIPV products. Novel developments of glazed crystalline silicon modules for BIPV integration are presented, with both opaque and see-thru variations. Also included are the selection of a battery technology best suited for inclusion in a custom-made building energy management system (BEMS), as well as a BIM-compatible software tool to assist the design of BIPV projects.

33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2849-2852, Photovoltaics developed for a long time as a field clearly focused on stand-alone applications, in which the lack of any grid in certain places justified the installation of PV systems in spite of the high costs they used to have decades ago. Fortunately the successful development of new technologies, combined with a spectacular market deployment (based on grid-connected systems), has reduced the cost of PV electricity below grid-parity on a large scale. The need for electricity in many countries is still, however, a main concern and PV is now in an optimum position to offer technically and economically efficient solutions thereto. Café au Light is a project aimed at improving life conditions and stimulating economic development in a number of villages in the N’Zérékoré prefecture of Guinea by means of the installation of PV microgrids that will provide electricity both for public services and private homes. Funding is not obtained through grants but through a significant increase in the productivity of the main economic resource of the people living in these towns: coffee. With this, the undertaking is twofold, having to deploy efforts on two areas: coffee and photovoltaics. The initiative is not conceived as a development-aid project but as an endeavour in which business is equally profitable for all parts on the basis of two essential goals: net benefit for the people and sustainability.

32nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2866-2868, At present, energy grids (electricity, heating/cooling, gas) still mainly operate independently and do not make use of synergies between them. Although interactions and synergies are increasingly apparent, they neither have been comprehensively analysed nor implemented in practise. The optimisation of such synergies is under investigation in the OrPHEuS project, which has the aim of improving the cooperation among energy grids enabling, at the same time, high renewable resources penetration and customer satisfaction. Overall, the technology innovation of the OrPHEuS project is related to the provisioning of a cross-domain multi-utility energy management system. The system targets an increase of efficiency for renewable energy generation and minimizes the overall energy demand and CO2 emissions in smart cities by exploiting a higher level of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in all energy systems.

32nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2951-2954, This paper presents the current state of the PV market in Greece, the achievements so far and the projections of the PV market for next years. The PV market environment in terms of new PV development policies and deployment, such as the new feed-in-premium scheme and the virtual net-metering are presented.

32nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2963-2993, Renewable energy (RE) has been already viewed as a minor contributor in the final energy mix of North America due to cost and intermittency constraints. However, recent dramatic cost reductions and new initiatives using RE, particularly solar PV and wind energy, as a main energy source for the future energy mix of the world pave the way for enabling this source of energy to become cost competitive and beneficial in comparison to fossil fuels. Other alternatives such as nuclear energy and coal-fired power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) cannot play an important role in the future of energy system, mainly due to safety and economic constraints for these technologies. Phasing out nuclear and fossil fuels is still under discussion, however the ‘net zero’ greenhouse gas emissions agreed at COP21 in Paris clearly guides the pathway towards sustainability. Consequently, RE would be the only trustable energy source towards a clean and sustainable world. In this study, an hourly resolved model has been developed based on linear optimization of energy system parameters under given constraints with a bright perspective of RE power generation and demand for North America. The geographical, technical and economic potential of different types of RE resources in North America, including wind energy, solar PV, hydro, geothermal and biomass energy sources enable the option to build a Super Grid connection between different North American regions’ energy resources to achieve synergy effects and make a 100% RE supply possible. The North American region, including the US, Canada and Mexico in this paper, is divided into 20 sub-regions based on their population, demand, area and electricity grid structure. These sub-regions are interconnected by high voltage direct current (HVDC) power lines. The main objective of this paper is to assume a 100% RE-based system for North America in 2030 and to evaluate its results from different perspectives. Four scenarios have been evaluated according to different HVDC transmission grid development levels, including a region-wide, country-wide, area-wide and integrated scenario. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is found to be 63 €/MWhel in a decentralized scenario. However, it is observed that this amount decreases to 53 €/MWhel in a more centralized HVDC grid connected scenario. In the integrated scenario, which consists of industrial gas production and reverse osmosis water desalination demand, integration of new sectors provides the system with required flexibility and increases the efficiency of the usage of storage technologies. Therefore, the LCOE declines to 42 €/MWhel and the total electricity generation is decreased by around 6.6% in the energy system compared to the non-integrated sectors due to higher system efficiency enabled by more flexibility. The results clearly show that a 100% RE-based system is feasible and a real policy option.

32nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 3080-3082, Off-grid photovoltaic systems are less constrained by national regulations than their grid-connected counterparts. Off-grid systems do not depend on feed-in tariff and the analysis of their cost-efficiency is more stable along time. This work calculates the economic parameters for two different technologies of photovoltaic systems and compares the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), with the price of the electricity, including the cost for the connection of the system related to the distance to the grid. The results show that the sustained decline in photovoltaic module´s price contributes to subsequent decline in LCOE, whereas the increase in the price of grid electricity and materials related to the connection makes off-grid systems more cost-effective for remote areas. Finally, to determine if the photovoltaic system could be an economic alternative for investments in remote regions, a comparison between the cost of grid extension and the LCOE of a high capacity photovoltaic system was undertaken.

32nd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition; 2958-2962, The paper presents the research results of energy, ecological, operational, economic and social efficiency of renewable energy (photovoltaic (PV) and wind power) and comparison results of renewable and traditional energy efficiency. It is established that wind and PV power stations are more effective, than thermal stations; their ecological efficiency is considerably higher, than that of thermal stations; the use of PV and wind power stations increases social stability.