Photovoltaics is inherently renewable, but not automatically fully sustainable. In view of the foreseen very large increase in PV manufacturing and installations to the terawatt-level, it is essential to address the manifold of sustainability-related challenges timely and explicitly. This is not only because the supply chain needs to be reliable and environmental impacts have to be minimized, but also because public support has to be maintained. Integral sustainability in manufacturing, application and end-of-life is not a luxury, but a prerequisite for PV to become a major supplier of energy to the world.

The European Photovoltaic Technology Platform had the pleasure to organise a special event on “Sustainability aspects for very large scale (terawatts) photovoltaics”. During this event, critical examples of sustainability-related issues of today’s and future photovoltaics were extensively discussed.

Program

15:15 – 15:30    Introduction by Wim Sinke, Chairman of the European Photovoltaic Technology Platform
15:30 – 16:00    Eco-factories and PV manufacturing (Klaus Eberhardt, M+W Group, Technology Manager Photovoltaic)
16:00 – 16:30    Solar parks and their influence on biodiversity (Andreas Wade, First Solar, Sustainability Manager)
16:30 – 17:00    Materials challenges for terawatt-scale photovoltaics (Peter Rigby, Umicore S.A.)
17:00 – 17:30    External costs and benefits of photovoltaics (Carol Olson, ECN Solar Energy)
17:30 – 18:00    Panel discussion “Major challenges for sustainable terawatt-scale photovoltaics”

More information can be found on the Conference website.

MInutes

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Minutes

Wim Sinke opened the workshop and welcomed the participants by emphasizing the great attendance to the workshop. He mentioned that in order to achieve an impact on a global scale and to strongly reduce the CO2 emissions, PV need to play an active role into the terawatt scale. In the last decade the PV sector focused on the cost reduction. Now it is time to look at the requirements of terawatt scale and its sustainability...

Wim Sinke

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