Economic and environmental benefits of technology fusion of solar photovoltaics with alternative technologies

Abstract

Technology fusion refers to the blending of several previously separate fields of existing technology, creating novel markets and growth opportunities. In technology fusion, one plus one equals three. This is indeed the case when fusing solar PV with alternative technologies: besides greenhouse gas emission reductions, additional advantages such as the savings of scarce land area, grid independency, diminishment of the effect of power variability of intermittent clean energy sources, and increased system performances can be established. These social and technical advantages however often come at increased economic costs, implying a barrier for wide-scale implementation. Moreover, any rational investor will only invest in a combination of technologies, if this is economically profitable. Furthermore, the policy makers’ major concern is the technologies’ cost-efficiency to decrease polluting emissions. Hence, there is a strong need for private investors and for policy makers to evaluate economic and environmental performances of combined technologies. This doctoral dissertation fills this gap by providing economic and environmental assessment methods applied to three different cases of solar PV combined with alternative technologies, aiming to support decision making. ...