Facilities

Pv powered

Pv powered dwelling

The homes that have no connection to the electricity grid have the option to use renewables to produce their own electricity. The most popular option in Spain is the photovoltaic solar energy, although some facilities are complemented with wind turbines wind farms, which produce electricity when weather conditions are not optimal for solar energy.

One of the few drawbacks of solar PV is that silicon, the semiconductor used in solar cells, is a waste material from the electronics industry, and is subject to the demand that is in this sector for its production of photovoltaic modules, which influences the price of the modules. For this reason, several investigations are being developed that seek, or replace the material or develop new processes for production thereof, to optimize costs.

Laboratory Technology Park Zamudio, Vizcaya, is developing this line of research. There are the manufacturing processes used only in laboratory cells, which reach up to 23% yield, while the industrial process achieved only 16.5%. The Basques are trying to develop these industrial processes so that laboratory processes are applicable to industrial manufacturing.