Solar energy can meet the world’s electricity demand with 0.3% of its land area. This is one of the first conclusions of new research by a group of academic institutions, carried out by the University of Aarhus in Denmark. They state that raw materials and land availability will not present problems for photovoltaics in its bid to dominate the global energy landscape.
A group of international researchers say that raw materials and land availability present no problems for a global energy system with solar power at its core.
In an interview with a website portal, the researchers said that vertical photovoltaics, agrovoltaics and floating photovoltaics should be considered as future large market volumes.
The scientists confirm that, for an average annual solar generation of 1,370 kWh/kWh, 38 million hectares would be occupied. They mentioned that the world has a total area of 13,003 million hectares.
“Therefore our current electricity consumption could be covered by solar photovoltaic energy covering 0.3% of the available land,” researcher Marta Victoria mentioned to a solar energy portal.
The researchers said that assumptions about global PV deployment for the next few years are generally based on land coverage and cost projections that consider mainly classic, densely populated, utility-scale power plants. They confirm that such projections ignore the potential for vertical solar panel power, floating installations, agricultural power and solar panels aggregated on buildings, and also other innovative PV system configurations.
“However, these embryonic applications show that there is still room for system-level innovation,” the academics mentioned. “In summary, while available land may limit solar energy at the local level, it will not be a constraint on a larger scale, and therefore we recommend that models include accurate and up-to-date constraints based on materials and land availability.”
Published recently in Joule were findings that scientists described “Solar energy is poised to drive a sustainable future.” They mention that the efficiency of solar cell technologies will improve in the future and could help address land constraint issues in specific locations.
“Thanks to increased efficiency and the use of thinner contact fingers, the use of silver per watt has been reduced considerably in recent years and copper or aluminum could be used as a replacement if necessary,” the research group said. “Non-cell materials in PV (glass, plastic, aluminum, concrete, and steel) are also not expected to represent a limit.”
Also, the researchers reported that solar power sustained a 23% learning rate since 1976 and that the cost of PV technology dropped by 23% each time capacity doubled.
“Since the learning rate is based on module prices, they also include the elimination of much of the margins in PV manufacturing due to strong competition among suppliers,” the scientists said, stating that the main factors for the cost reduction are efficiency gains, economy of scale, and scientific work on silicon materials.
In 2021, wind and solar energy generated 10% of global electricity
electricity
According to the latest data at the time, by 2021 wind and solar power will generate more than 10% of the world’s electricity.
Fifty countries had already surpassed the 10% solar and wind energy milestone, and seven new countries were added in 2021. They are Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia, China, Hungary, Argentina and El Salvador.
Solar power grew by 23% in 2021, while wind grew by 14%.
Energy from coal also increased by 9% in 2021 to a new record.
“Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many countries have increased their renewable energy ambitions,” says Harsh Vijay Singh, project leader of the System Initiative Shoping the Future of Energy on shaping the future of energy.
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