The impact of efficiency on area-related system costs

There is an ongoing debate within the photovoltaic (PV) industry as to holt , significantly PV module efficiency impacts the installed cost of a PV sys tem. This paper examines key factors and, through examples, concludes that under current economics, efficiency is generally not the dominant factor af fecting overall cost, However, the paper, also notes a variety of exception s in which efficiency can become a principal cost driver. Therefore, in the absence of a reliable rule of thumb to guide design decisions, the paper i dentifies the technical and economic conditions under which efficiency has the strongest impact on overall cost. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.