Netherlands, Photovoltaic technology status and prospects - Contribution to the Annual report 2005

Netherlands
Photovoltaic technology status and prospects
Job Swens, SenterNovem, and Willem van der Heul, Ministry of Economic Affairs

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General Framework

In 2005, the investments in solar PV in the Netherlands, which had already dropped from 19,8 MW in 2003 to 3,2 MW in 2004, decreased further to 2 MW. This was caused by the gradual ending of the projects, still financed under the previous EPR and MAP schemes, which stopped in 2003. The remaining market is mainly based on local and regional support and the last phase of a running subsidy project. The new support scheme for Energy RTD, the EOS (energy research subsidy) programme, on the other hand gave a new boost to PV RTD. As a result of a wide consultation amongst energy, research, industry and policy professionals, PV was appointed as one of the priority R&D areas. In the first two calls of the EOS programme, PV RTD came out well in the open competition against the other priority areas, due to the high quality of the proposals.

Though the market for PV was slow in 2005, the PV cell manufacturer Solland Solar started its new activities on the Dutch – German boarder; with a production capacity of 20 MW/year.
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National Programme

At the end of 2004, the Ministry of Economic Affairs started the new EOS (Energy Research Subsidy) programme. The new programme consists of five sub-programmes aiming at new ideas, fundamental research, knowledge transfer, demonstration and unique opportunities respectively:

NEO: New Energy Research, focussing on new, unconventional ideas. This programme is mainly intended for inventors. The programme covers all new energy options.
EOS LT: Energy Research Subsidy - Long Term, focussing on long term research on a selected range of promising energy saving- or renewable energy technologies, with expected serious impact between 2010 and 2030.
IS: Innovation Subsidy Collaboration Projects, focussing on technology transfer from research to industry, in order to convert technologies into products.
EOS Demo: Energy Research Subsidy - Demonstration, focussing on testing and demonstrating new energy saving- or renewable energy applications in a realistic user environment.
Transition UKR: Transition - Unique Opportunities Scheme, focussing on improvement of material- and energy use and on the application of renewables in general and biomass in particular.

NEO, IS and Transition UKR have a generic character, supporting all activities in the addressed area.

Fig. 1 - Electron microscope picture of CIS coated glass spheres on substrate at Scheuten Solar. For the EOS - LT sub-programme 5 priority areas were selected:

Energy efficiency in industrial and agricultural sectors
Biomass
New gas / clean fossils
Built environment
Energy generation and networks / grids

Within each of these areas, 4 to 7 topics related to the Dutch energy research fields were identified. Of the total of 26 topics 2 address PV specifically: 'Solar conversion: multi-crystalline silicon PV technology' and 'Solar conversion: thin-film PV technology.' PV research is furthermore included in a few other topics, such as 'System approach in the built environment and local energy generation,' 'Electricity conversion, power quality customer power converters and EMC' and 'Electricity storage, small-scale storage and system applications.' EOS - Demo largely follows the EOS - LT topics, aiming at the implementation of the results thereof.

The total budget for the energy focussed programmes is around 36 MEUR/yr. In 2005, approximately 4 MEUR thereof was awarded to PV RTD projects. The contribution to energy research from the more general IS and the Transition UKR programmes depends on the ranking of the projects. The contribution to PV RTD for 2005 is estimated to be negligible. Implementation of PV is not covered by a national programme.

Instead a feed-in tariff and net-metering are available. The feed-in tariff of 0,097 EUR, however, is too low and requires green certification and membership of the management organization. Net-metering became available in 2005.
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Research and development

In 2005 three main lines in PV RTD activities could be recognized:

Solving the silicon shortage problem by reducing the silicon consumption per Wp and developing production processes for SoG (solar grade silicon). RTD activities include the improvement of the AkzoNobel roll-to-roll process and the ECN work on RGS - wafers. In the field of SoG special attention is given to the relation between impurity levels and cell efficiencies.
Improving cell production processes, using new cell concepts and new or improved production technologies. Here two projects stand out: 1) development of CIS cells based on 0,2 mm CIS coated glass spheres, homogeneously distributed over a grid-shaped substrate at Scheuten Solar (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2) application of a radio frequency modulated expanding plasma for fast deposition of amorphous silicon at the TU Delft.
Improving the efficiency of future generation cells through hetero-junctions and up- and down conversion of photons. In this field several projects were running or initiated in 2005.

There are interesting projects aiming at integrating several cell improvement techniques, such as thin silicon wafers, back-side contacts, hetero junctions and down-conversion into a new cell concept.

In addition to the EOS - LT programme, FOM and Shell launched a call for fundamental pre-competitive PV RTD projects. The call was opened in 2004 with a total budget of 3,0 MEUR. After a process of pre-selection and selection, seven projects were awarded. The projects started early 2005, and cover subjects such as quantum dots, up- and down conversion and light trapping.

The main players in the fundamental Dutch PV RTD activities are ECN, Scheuten Solar, AKZO, TNO, Solland Solar, the Universities of Utrecht, Eindhoven, Groningen and Delft and FOM-AMOLF.

Very little RTD work was done in the field of BOS. The development of the wire-free mounting system was continued, and some work was started on life cycle assessments and energy payback times of full PV systems.

At the international level, Dutch PV RTD centres and industries collaborate in several networks, amongst which the CrystalClear project, which is co-ordinated by ECN and started early 2004. Other PV RTD or PV RTD related international projects granted in 2004 are PV-ERA-NET and the PV Policy Group.

Bilateral cooperation was initiated between ECN and the French institutes CNRS and CEA. The joint project was submitted to both the EOS LT programme and the French ADEME's Photo-voltaic Programme.
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Industry Status

Fig. 2 - New technology at Solland Solar: laser edge insulation incorporated in the new 20 MW production line.

Based on the strong growth of the world PV market, a slight revival of PV industrial activities took place in 2005. Solland Solar opened a crystalline silicon cell factory on the Dutch - German boarder (Fig. 2) and Ubbink Solar and Econcern initiated the construction of a PV module factory in Doesburg. The Solland factory has an initial production capacity of 20 MW, which will be expanded to 500 MW by 2010. Ubbink Solar will have an initial capacity of 5 MW in 2006, but an expansion to 200 MW by 2010 is expected.

Though Shell stepped out of the AkzoNobel/Shell Heliantos project at the end of 2004, AkzoNobel continued, although at a lower pace, the development of a roll-to-roll amorphous silicon thin film cell production process, and delivered the first cells from a pilot production line with an efficiency of 6 %. The work on a second generation cell has also continued, and the first results showed a significant increase in efficiency. The retreat of Shell, however, leaves AkzoNobel with a budgetary problem and in search of a new strategic partner.

DOPT, in 2004 the only serious Dutch PV module manufacturer, had to decrease his production due to the silicon and wafer shortage in the market.
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Demonstration, Implementation and Market Development

In 2005, the implementation of PV, which had gone back from 19,8 MWp in 2003 to 3,2 MWp in 2004, is expected to have decreased even further to an estimated 2,0 MWp. Projects carried out or finalized in 2005 were still partly supported by former subsidies and partly by local or regional funds. The MEP regulation, offering a feed-in tariff of 0,097, does not appear to stimulate new PV projects. This is partly caused by the low level of the tariff, partly by the fact that application for the feed-in tariff requires a membership of EnerQ, the managing body of the MEP regulation, the purchase of a special meter and the acquisition of green-certificates.

For most, especially building integrated PV projects, the costs and efforts of acquiring MEP subsidy are too high, compared to the income.

The EU supported project, City of the Sun Project, again made progress in its goal of installing 5 MW in the to-be-developed HAL districts (between Heerhugowaard, Alkmaar and Langedijk) and reached 3,7 MWp by the end of 2005.
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Future Outlook

In the national renewable energy policy, no priority is given to market introduction of the more costly RE technologies, like solar PV.

For PV, the Dutch policy focuses on R&D, especially on technology development for more cost efficient PV systems in the next decade. Nevertheless, existing PV installations may profit from the 9,7 EURct/kWh feed-in tariff, which the so-called MEP scheme offers. Also net metering for small domestic systems became available in 2005.

Together, these two schemes allow private PV-owners a net subsidy of almost 30 EURct/kWh. As mentioned earlier, however, access to these schemes is complicated and expensive for smaller systems and is therefore not expected to generate any serious implementation.

From the new EOS programme, which opened at the end of 2004, the EOS - LT sub-programme appears to be favourable for fundamental PV RTD. In the first 2 calls, 3,4 MEUR of the total of 20 MEUR was awarded to PV RTD projects. The international orientation of the EOS programme led to a first French - Dutch bilateral project; bringing together the expertise of ECN and the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, and the CNRS and CEA institutes in France. BOS and system integration issues, on the other hand, are not very well covered in the EOS programme so far. The EOS - Demo sub-programme, which is meant to demonstrate the feasibility of EOS - LT and IS results are expected to follow, in the long run, the outcomes of the EOS - LT and IS priorities, and is thus expected to support PV, as well.