Material use in photovoltaic manufacturing Approximately 65

Material use in photovoltaic manufacturing Approximately 65 gigawatts of electrical power are consumed during periods of peak demand in Texas. If the entire demand were to be met by copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) photovoltaic cells requiring 50 kg of indium and 10 kg of gallium per megawatt of power generated, calculate the total amounts of Ga and In required to manufacture these cells, and compare these quantities to the total worldwide production of Ga and In (see U.S. DOE, 2010).

Solution

For total production

power required is 65 GW

For each 1MW production,

Ga required is 10kg

and In required is 50 kg

hence for 65000 MW production,

Ga required is

6.5 lac kg

and In required is,

32.5 lac kg