A Market Feasibility Study on Launching Transparent Solar Panels

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Solar Panels

Solar panel refers to a panel designed to absorb the sun's rays as a source of energy for generating electricity or heating. A conventional photovoltaic module is a packaged, connected assembly of solar cells, which constitute the solar array of a photovoltaic system that generates and supplies solar electricity in commercial and residential applications. A photovoltaic system typically includes a panel or an array of solar modules, a solar inverter, and sometimes a battery and/or solar tracker and interconnection wiring. However, presently available classical solar panels installation required huge piece of land, which is the biggest constraint to this existing solar technology.

Solar Energy in India

With about 300 clear, sunny days in a year, India's theoretically calculated solar energy incidence on its land area alone, is about 5,000 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year (or 5 EWh/yr).The solar energy available in a year exceeds the possible energy output of all fossil fuel energy reserves in India. The daily average solar power plant generation capacity over India is 0.25 kWh per m2of used land area, which is equivalent to about 1,500–2,000 peak (rated) capacity operating hours in a year with the available commercially-proven technologies. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission was launched on the 11th January, 2010 by our Govt of India. However, land acquisition is the major challenge for this project. The Mission has set the ambitious target of deploying 20,000 MW of grid connected solar power by 2022 and aims at reducing the cost of solar power generation in the country through (i) long term policy; (ii) large scale deployment goals; (iii) aggressive R&D; and (iv) domestic reduction of critical raw materials, components and products. It has been envisaged to achieve grid tariff parity by 2022.

Market Analysis for Solar Panel

Growth

SolarCellCentral.com reports that the annual growth rate for the solar panel market in the United States from 2006 to 2011 was 78 percent. Between 2011 and 2012, the market value of the solar industry increased from $8.6 billion to $11.5 billion. The expectation is that the industry will experience a 35 percent increase in the amount of electricity produced using solar energy, from 3,313 megawatts in 2012 to 4,400 megawatts by the end of 2013. The states with the most installations during 2012 were California, Arizona and New Jersey.

Prices

The price of photovoltaic-produced electricity -- the type of solar power system used for residential installations -- is expected to drop to 0.067 cents per kilowatt hour by 2015 and fall into line with the price of electricity produced by natural gas generators during normal peak times. Solar prices have dropped from $3.25 per kilowatt hour in 2006 to $0.80 in 2012. Federal government subsidies can reduce the cost of installing solar panels by 30 percent, and state and utility subsidies and rebates have made photovoltaic systems even more attractive to install and use.

Production

Falling prices have made it hard for the manufacturers of solar panels to survive in this competitive market. The larger manufacturers, like First Solar in the United States, have struggled to make a profit. Production has shifted away from the United States because of the low cost of manufacturing panels in countries like China and India, and this trend is expected to continue. The manufacturing sector is expected to shrink due to consolidations, bankruptcies and closure of inefficient or expensive production facilities.

Concentrated vs. Photovoltaic

Concentrated solar power, or CSP, has been favored by electrical utility companies to produce energy from the sun. The attention given to CSP was driven by the high cost of photovoltaic solar panels that are typically installed on homes, businesses, farms and municipal buildings. However, due to the price decreases, utilities are shifting their focus away from building CSP installations, which can cost upward of $2 billion for a CSP system that can produce 250 megawatts of electricity, to recently affordable solar panels to meet energy needs. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory report that 57 percent of utility-supplied solar electricity was supplied by photovoltaic panels and that the share is expected to grow for the foreseeable future.

This fully transparent solar cell could make every window and screen a power source

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Imagine a skyscraper made wholly of solar cell glass.

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Current Market Trends

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Solar energy accounted for 32 percent of total new power generation in 2014, exceeding coal and wind energy but lagging behind natural gas. In just nine years, the installation cost of solar energy has fallen by more than 73 percent – setting up the industry for explosive growth.

TriplePundit spoke with Vikram Aggarwal, founder and CEO of EnergySage, the so-called “Expedia of solar,” about solar energy trends and what to expect for 2016 in the residential market.

1. Unprecedented boom continues

Last year, analysts predicted that solar would grow by 57.4 gigawatts in 2015. The recent five-year extension of the investment tax credit (ITC) in the U.S. for both residential and commercial installations further enhances the growth trend. Now that solar manufacturing capacity has expanded significantly, the price of solar equipment has plummeted – making solar energy cheaper than grid-supplied power in many markets.

2. Misinformation in the solar market continues

The solar industry continues to change and evolve so quickly that it is difficult for the average consumer to stay on top of all the needed information. In some cases, sales tactics have hurt consumers. Lack of understanding prevails, making transparency by the solar installers and unbiased third-party sources of information especially important for solar shoppers to make informed choices. Solar system owners can typically save a lot on utility bills, but lack of information plagues the industry.

3. Dizzying array of solar options

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Solar