Renewable Energy Materials Properties Database (REMPD)
Solar Quantity Dataset
The REMPD material quantity dataset for solar power plants includes four types of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems: residential, commercial, utility PV (UPV) systems with crystalline silicon (c-Si) modules, or UPV systems with cadmium telluride (CdTe) modules. Silicon modules are assumed to contain monocrystalline passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) cells, as this technology currently maintains the largest market share in the industry (Zuboy et al. 2022). We selected these system types and characteristics to represent a typical system in the given market sector that is consistent with those used in the annual NREL PV system cost benchmark (Ramasamy et al. 2021).
Tables 8 and 9 in the Solar Overview section further describe system characteristics (e.g., module size, module power, and inverter loading ratio) and document the component and subassembly organizational structure, along with the references used to calculate material quantities for solar PV systems.
Projected Annual Material Quantities for All U.S. Solar PV
Download DataMaterial Quantity (billions of kg per year)
Estimated annual quantity of material (in billions of kg) needed to meet U.S. solar energy demand in 2020.
Capacity MW / year
The annual solar energy generation capacity projection that is used to estimate the projected annual material quantities for all U.S. solar plants.
Table Dataset
Full dataset to sort and filter for material quantity and energy capacity per year.
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