Techno-economic assessment and deployment strategies for vertically-mounted photovoltaic panels

Ryan Zimmerman, Anurag Panda and Vladimir Bulović

Applied Energy, 2020, vol. 276, issue C, No S0306261920306619

Abstract: This study identifies potential future markets and deployment challenges for vertically mounted photovoltaic (PV) panels in the United States (U.S.). Target photovoltaic (PV) module metrics are determined for economically competitive installations comparable to the grid-supplied commercial electricity price in the contiguous U.S. The study is motivated by the emergence of third-generation PV materials that promise low cost modules with weight per unit area that are an order of magnitude lower than silicon panels, thereby enabling vertical installation of PV modules on existing structures with minimal mechanical reinforcement. Vertically-mounted PVs on building façades are the largest potential market, between 50 GWp and 550 GWp, with other smaller markets adding an additional 15 GWp of capacity. Conservatively, assuming that the third-generation lightweight and monofacial PV modules have 15% efficiency, cost $0.68/Wp and a 10-year lifetime, when mounted vertically facing south, their levelized cost of generated electricity is between 18.3 and 23.1 ¢/kWh, dependent on the region of the U.S. East or west facing monofacial modules result in a higher levelized cost between 24.1 and 28.4 ¢/kWh. Bifacial PV modules facing east–west achieve a grid-comparable cost between 11.8 and 14.2 ¢/kWh. With further improvement of the monofacial PV module performance to 19% efficiency, 10-year lifetime, and $0.20/Wp when vertically mounted facing south, the levelized cost of their generated electricity would be between 10.1 and 12.7 ¢/kWh, comparable to the average 2018 grid price in the U. S.

Keywords: Vertical photovoltaics; Building integrated photovoltaics; Perovskite; Levelized cost of electricity; Solar energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261920306619
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:276:y:2020:i:c:s0306261920306619

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.115149

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().