Photovoltaics Report 2022 (II)

The Fraunhofer ISE have released the latest Photovoltaics Report in December 2022 with updates on the state of the Solar Energy marketplace in Europe and Worldwide.

Here are our selected nuggets from the recent Photovoltaics Report 2022 (II), and some of our articles on previous reports from Fraunhofer ISE for comparison.

– Read Photovoltaics Report 2022 (I), LCOE for Solar PV, or Solar Module Efficiencies.

Cumulative installations of solar PV have reached 164.9 GW in Europe and 945 GW Worldwide at the end of 2021.

Fraunhofer ISE — Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Freiburg

Crystalline Silicon Solar Modules

Crystalline silicon is still the dominant module type holding 95% of manufacturing at the end of 2021.

Asia is the dominant producer of c-Si solar modules with 94% of global production located there.

Europe collectively produces 1%. Europe can do better.

Mono-crystalline silicon solar cells continue to be the most efficient solar cells in a laboratory environment with 26.7% efficiency recorded, while poly-crystalline silicon solar cells achieved 24.4% efficiency.

Similarly for solar modules where mono-crystaline silicon solar modules achieved 24.4% while poly-crystalline silicon solar modules achieved 20.4%.

Inverter efficiency of 98% should be widely available in the market.

Cost of Solar PV Panels

Prices of small-scale solar PV in the German market range from approx €1,000 to €1,600 per kWp installed. This price range has compressed slightly in recent years.

Solar PV is increasingly matching onshore Wind energy in terms of electricity production values.

Germany consumed 50 TWh of solar electricity in 2021.

Commercial Solar PV

The average efficiency of commercial solar PV modules was 20.2% in 2021, and exceeded 22% efficiency in some cases.

Commerical solar PV panels are currently available up to 700 Wp peak-power per module.

Predominant configuration for commercial solar PV is mono-PERC cells (2021), however it should be noted that both HJT and TOPCon cells have shown much higher efficiency and production values than PERC cells.

Solar Cell — Dominant solar cell type is determined by manufacturers

Utility-scale Solar PV costs

The latest photovoltaics report identifies a wide range of costs in the deployment of large-scale solar PV systems.

For example, costs of €499/kWp are achievable in India, while you could pay €1432/kWp in Japan.

In Ireland, the price is averaging €903/kWp, with the greatest difference being in the balance-of-system costs such as labour, rather than in solar module costs.

Now is the right time to develop new utility-scale solar PV projects in Ireland.