Can global knowledge transfer speed grid parity?

What happens when Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, drops in to Australia’s first carbon-neutral office building to meet Prime Minister Julia Gillard? While they might have exchanged a few private words about the exhilaration of smashing glass ceilings, the topic of the day was not women politicians but solar energy – and how to bring costs down.

As revealed in Melbourne’s PixelBuilding on 9 November, their new Solar Pact reflects months of planning and could have implications for many countries.

While there has been much talk of 'knowledge transfer' and calls for 'working together', this agreement appears to effect this on a new and global scale. In fact, the new Solar Pact appears to have it all: a definite goal, real money, knowledge transfer in the best sense, with each country sharing its areas of expertise, and a highly detailed approach to technology.

The goal: To cut solar costs, not just solar PV but other solar technologies. The money: AU$500 million from the Australian Solar Institute (ASI), a Government body, and a somewhat lesser sum from the US – a mere US$500,000 grant from the State Department. But added to Australia’s half billion, this is real money.

The ASI was specific about the knowledge transfer aspect: “Collaboration between Australian and US researchers and industry participants will include research scholarships, laboratory exchange programmes, information exchange on research and development projects and demonstration programmes, as well as funding of joint research projects for new solar technologies.”

In a nutshell, the ASI said: “Collaboration can accelerate the pace of innovation beyond that which either country can achieve on its own.”

Haven’t costs been falling…?

The ASI acknowledged that the cost of solar PV has been falling - by approximately 20% with each doubling of global module production, according to its estimates.

It also said that PV module prices have dropped approximately 50% over the last three years, leading to the development of a new global industry.

Anyone who wants to see a chart on this should go to: http://www.australiansolarinstitute.com.au/news.htm

But this dramatic fall is not enough – and not fast enough for the two governments. For grid parity, the ASI wants to see the average sales price for PV modules fall by two to four times from current levels – soon. So the idea is to accelerate this fall.

Initial projects

I can only give you an idea of the joint research projects here. First, hot-carrier solar cells based on PV conversion through the use of hot-carrier extraction. The ASI said that the use of nano-structured materials may be key to demonstrating this effect which has been studied at Australia’s Special Research Centre for Third Generation Photovoltaics. Now research on hot carriers will be done in collaboration with researchers at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL).

Next, dual junction Si-PV devices. These have the aim of improving cell efficiency and reliability, and cutting the costs of crystalline Si. NREL is already studying options for a dual-junction Si cell, and the University of New South Wales has been getting “promising results” by growing template layers on silicon.

In addition, the Australian National University has been working on the development of a cost-effective top-cell which could be directly deposited onto a crystalline Si bottom-cell – and looking to use kesterite and other “earth-abundant compounds”. The ASI believes that this could, in principle, substantially boost efficiency.

Meanwhile, the Australian National University (ANU) is said to have strength in cell fabrication and characterisation.

So you can see how combining these approaches may hasten progress.

Another project involves high temperature receivers (CST) for the CSP industry. Storage is yet another area of research, specifically to develop low cost, high temperature fluids and media that are stable at high temperature.

NREL and Sandia Labs in the US, and Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, will work with other Australian universities on this. And if any startling breakthroughs are made, who gets the dosh? Will the information be open to the planet…?

Alas, no. When I asked the ASI about this, I got a stiffly worded email assuring me that, as is typical in the innovation process, the IP rights will be assigned to the universities of those labs making the discovery.

So there’s an incentive to look for the Holy Grail. Questions of rights apart, I see this pact as a wake-up call to other governments. Ideally, the Solar Pact will deliver – and inspire similar efforts to accelerate the arrival of grid parity, not just for solar but for all renewables.

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