Solar Power key challenges

The challenges for solar power to gain widespread adoption is to have the cost of solar power achieve grid parity. This means that the cost of power generation through solar panel is equal to the cost of electricity generation from the grid. To reach grid parity, there must be sufficient market support and government incentives to spur entrepreneurs and company to continue to invest to upgrade the technology so that the cost of manufacturing solar panels continue to go down. The key challenges for solar power include:

Shortage in supply of silicon materials.
Silicon is critical for the manufacturing of photovoltaic cells. The limited supply and increasing cost of silicon raw material increases the cost of manufacturing. If the selling price of solar panels increases, the adoption of solar power will be slow. One of the greatest loss is in the waste associated with sawing silicon during conventional silicon wafer production technology. This loss, known as kerf loss determines the cost of manufacturing. If it can be reduced by more efficient process, it can cut down the use of silicon.

Government Incentives
Renewable energy especially solar power is subsidized heaviiy by government in several countries including Spain and Germany. It is this incentives and tax breaks provided that makes it cost efficient to adopt solar power. Any reduction or elimination of incentives can lead to a hindrance in growth of the PV industry. Recently, Germany is proposing to speed up the reduction of this incentive. Such news can easily cause the solar industry to scramble for help.

Improving performance
Solar cells onthe whole are still not very efficient. They convert about 10-15% of the sunlight that falls on it. Better technology that leads to better conversion can increase the output and thus lower the overall cost of electricity production.