SRC-646

Methodological Guidelines on Net Energy Analysis of Photovoltaic Electricity (IEA-PVPS Report T12-07:2016, ISBN 978-3-906042-39-8)

Published claims resting on this source

• CLM-0316 In 2009 three researchers guessed that, once the energy to deliver and use it is counted, an oil-based fuel must return at least about 3 times the energy put into it, and a society's main fuels about 5 times, to support modern life; a search found no open, peer-reviewed calculation of where space solar power sits against such thresholds.
• CLM-1307 An "energy return" figure for solar power can be stated in two ways, counting the electricity itself or counting the fuel a power station would have burned to make it, and in the worked example of the 2016 international guidelines the second is about three times larger. Any SBSP figure set beside a ground solar figure has to use the same way of counting.
• CLM-1308 "Energy payback time" and "energy return" are two views of one calculation and can be converted only when the lifetime and counting method are known. Neither says how much of the sun's or the fuel's energy a system uses up; that is a separate measure.
• CLM-1309 A fair energy-return comparison of SBSP with ground solar counts the same things for both: the energy to build, run and scrap each, including the supply chain, measured at the same point, power into the grid. Storage and round-the-clock supply are not credited to any one technology under these 2016 rules for solar power.
• CLM-1310 The 2016 guidelines recommend default lifetime, wear-out and performance numbers for a ground solar energy-return study, and list 16 facts every study must report. An SBSP figure can be checked against the same list to see whether it is comparable.

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