Electricity from Sunlight, 2nd Edition

7PV Growth and Sustainability

During 2000–2015, photovoltaics (PVs) enjoyed an average growth of approximately 45% per year. Is such a rate of growth sustainable in the long term, and what is the maximum level it could reach in the foreseeable future? To answer this question, we need to reflect on what sustainable development is all about. We may think of it as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” PVs, as fuel‐free energy sources, are inherently sustainable unless they are too expensive to produce, are manufactured using materials that are depletable, or are environmentally unsafe. Measurable aspects of sustainability include cost, resource availability, and environmental impact. The question of cost concerns the affordability of solar energy compared with other energy sources throughout the world. Environmental impacts include local, regional, and global effects, as well as the usage of land and water, which must be considered in a comparable context over a long, multigenerational horizon. Finally, the availability of material resources matters to current and future generations under the constraint of affordability. More concisely, PV must meet the need for generating abundant electricity at competitive costs while conserving resources for future generations and having environmental impacts much lower than those of current modes of power generation, preferably lower than those of alternative ...