Concentrator photovoltaics may play significant role in growth of solar electricity because of scalability. Need to take a bird?s eye view for the design and a worm?s eye view for diagnosis.

This presentation discusses water requirements for power generation and includes an analysis of wet/dry cooling.

Presentation on the paths to renewable hydrogen presented by Robert Remick at the 2008 PowerGen: Renewable Energy and Fuels 2008 conference.

This presentation covers modeling metal fatigue as a key step in photovoltaic (PV) module lifetime predictions. Described are time-dependent and time-independent case studies.

Requirements for a standard test to rate the durability of photovoltaic (PV) modules at system voltage are discussed.

This presentation is about the Wind-to-Hydrogen Project at NREL, part of the Renewable Electrolysis task and the examination of a grid-tied, co-located wind electrolysis hydrogen production facility.

This presentation summarizes project goals; vehicle and H2 station deployment status, critical performance compared to targets; highlights of latest vehicle and infrastructure analysis results and progress; learning demo next steps; highlights of partner activities and summary.

EERE's Solar Energy Technologies Program is charged with leading the Secretary's SunShot Initiative to reduce the cost of electricity from solar by 75% to be cost competitive with conventional energy sources without subsidy by the end of the decade. As part of this Initiative, the program has funded the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to develop module manufacturing and solar PV system installation cost models to ensure that the program's cost reduction targets are carefully aligned with current and near term industry costs. The NREL cost analysis team has leveraged the laboratories' extensive experience in the areas of project finance and deployment, as well as industry partnerships, to develop cost models that mirror the project cost analysis tools used by project managers at leading U.S. installers. The cost models are constructed through a "bottoms-up" assessment of each major cost element, beginning with the system's bill of materials, labor requirements (type and hours) by component, site-specific charges, and soft costs. In addition to the relevant engineering, procurement, and construction costs, the models also consider all relevant costs to an installer, including labor burdens and overhead rates, supply chain costs, and overhead and materials inventory costs, and assume market-specific profits.

Engineering robust adhesion of the junction-box (j-box) is a hurdle typically encountered by photovoltaic (PV) module manufacturers during product development. Furthermore, there are historical incidences of adverse effects (e.g., fires) caused when the j-box/adhesive/module system has failed in the field. The addition of a weight to the j-box during the 'damp heat' IEC qualification test is proposed to verify the basic robustness of the j-box adhesion system. The details of the proposed test are described, in addition to the preliminary results conducted using representative materials and components.

Description and history of the IEC 61215 qualification test, what it accomplishes, and what it does not accomplish that would be useful to the community. The commercial success of PV is based on long term reliability of the PV modules. Today's modules are typically qualified/certified to: (1) IEC 61215 for Crystalline Silicon Modules; (2) IEC 61646 for Thin Film Modules; and (3) IEC 62108 for CPV Modules. These qualification tests do an excellent job of identifying design, materials and process flaws that could lead to premature field failures. This talk will provide a summary of how IEC 61215 was developed, how well it works and what its limitations are.

Degradation modes in photovoltaic modules under system bias voltage stress are described and classified.

Tests to make quantitative predictions about photovoltaic (PV) modules are needed. This presentation proposes the creation of international quality assurance standards for PV modules.

Keynote presentation given at the 2013 NTEA Green Truck Summit titled Partnering with Industry to Shape the Future.

This presentation outlines an analysis of alternate methods to obtain stabilized power performance of CdTe and CIGS PV modules.

The ability to accurately predict power delivery over the course of time is of vital importance to the growth of the photovoltaic (PV) industry. Two key cost drivers are the efficiency with which sunlight is converted to power and secondly how this relationship develops over time. The accurate knowledge of power decline over time, also known as degradation rates, is essential and important to all stakeholders--utility companies, integrators, investors, and scientists alike. Different methods to determine degradation rates and discrete versus continuous data are presented, and some general best practice methods are outlined. In addition, historical degradation rates and some preliminary analysis with respect to climate are given.

This presentation outlines the modeling of thermal fatigue in concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) assemblies.

This PowerPoint presentation summarizes a proposed methodology for LEED baseline refrigeration modeling. The presentation discusses why refrigeration modeling is important, the inputs of energy models, resources, reference building model cases, baseline model highlights, example savings calculations and results.

Describes results of a sample survey of the quality of B20, a biodiesel blend, collected from U.S. public pumps and fleets as part of a joint effort by NREL, the NBB, and engine manufacturers.

Presentation about the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's analysis of hydrogen energy storage scenarios, including analysis framework, levelized cost comparison of hydrogen and competing technologies, analysis results, and conclusions drawn from the analysis.

Module data from NREL's CPV test bed is used to examine methods for calculating outdoor CPV power ratings. IEC 62670 and ASTM E2527 are used as a starting point for determining a module power rating on a monthly basis. Monthly power ratings vary by more than desired using existing methods. The presentation examines modifications to existing methods as well as spectral corrections to reduce variation in monthly module power ratings.

The presentation describes the value of adding DC converters and other power electronics to modules to improve their output even when shading or bad cells would otherwise decrease the module output. The presentation was part of a workshop sponsored by ARPA-E exploring the opportunities for power electronics to support PV applications.

One would hope that PV modules are designed for survival in the outdoors. However, it appears that some module types are really designed to pass the qualification (IEC 61216/61646) and safety (IEC 61730 and UL 1703) tests. While this has resulted in an overall increase in module reliability and a reduction in infant mortality, it may not result in the most cost-effective solution for long-term reliability and minimum power degradation. This paper will provide several examples of module types and even solar cells designed to pass the tests that do not result in good cost-effective long-term solutions for outdoor performance. This presentation is meant to stimulate a discussion about how to remedy this situation and improve the overall PV industry.

Description of how to make PV modules so that they are less likely to turn into safety hazards. Making modules inherently safer with minimum additional cost is the preferred approach for PV. Safety starts with module design to ensure redundancy within the electrical circuitry to minimize open circuits and proper mounting instructions to prevent installation related ground faults. Module manufacturers must control the raw materials and processes to ensure that that every module is built like those qualified through the safety tests. This is the reason behind the QA task force effort to develop a 'Guideline for PV Module Manufacturing QA'. Periodic accelerated stress testing of production products is critical to validate the safety of the product. Combining safer PV modules with better systems designs is the ultimate goal. This should be especially true for PV arrays on buildings. Use of lower voltage dc circuits - AC modules, DC-DC converters. Use of arc detectors and interrupters to detect arcs and open the circuits to extinguish the arcs.

Concentrating solar power (CSP) deployed with thermal energy storage (TES) provides a dispatchable source of renewable energy. The value of CSP with TES, as with other potential generation resources, needs to be established using traditional utility planning tools. Production cost models, which simulate the operation of grid, are often used to estimate the operational value of different generation mixes. CSP with TES has historically had limited analysis in commercial production simulations. This document describes the implementation of CSP with TES in a commercial production cost model. It also describes the simulation of grid operations with CSP in a test system consisting of two balancing areas located primarily in Colorado.