Carbon Markets for Photovoltaic (PV) Systems

Overview

Photovoltaic (PV), solar home systems (SHS) are an eligible technology for carbon finance projects. However, their greenhouse gas (GHG) savings (carbon credit) potential is small compared to overall PV system costs.

Studies and Research Papers

• Approaches to Integrate Carbon Finance into Energy Efficient Lighting Initiatives - Lighting Africa Presentation on Carbon Finance issues in off-grid lighting projects
• Analysis of the potential to foster electricity and lighting access in the Andean region, thanks to carbon mechanism - Microsol and Rexel Foundation, study led from June 2013 to May 2014.

Selected PV Solar Home System (SHS) Carbon Finance Projects

• Photovoltaic kits to light up rural households in Morocco: Registered SHS CDM project. Dissemination of 101,500 SHS. Crediting period: 01 Jan 07 - 31 Dec 16.
• Rural Education for Development Society (REDS) CDM Photovoltaic Lighting Project: Registered Pico-PV CDM project in India. Dissemination of 180,000 PV-lamps (CFL & LED). Crediting period: 10 Aug 09 - 09 Aug 19.
• Installation of Solar Home Systems in Bangladesh: First Solar Home System PoA. Under Validation.

Selected Pico PV and Solar Lantern Carbon Finance Projects (August 2010)

Pico PV (or micro PV systems), such as solar lanterns, are usually very small SHS with a module capacity of up to 10W and lamps or lanterns (often only one) with integrated batteries. Currently there are two CDM projects (both in India) registered under the UNFCCC . Four more (Malawi, Zambia, Tanzania and India) are either already registered or pending under the Gold Standard.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

• Rural Education for Development Society (REDS) CDM Photovoltaic Lighting Project: Registered Pico-PV CDM project in India. Dissemination of 300,000 PV-lamps (CFL & LED) for 60,000 sites (households and institutions). Crediting period: 10 Aug 09 - 09 Aug 19. Approx. 460,000 CERs.
• D.light Rural Lighting Project: Registered Pico-PV project in India. Dissemination of 1 Mio. PV-lamps (LED). Crediting period: 30 Oct 09 - 29 Oct 14. Approx. 450,000 CERs. Seen as preparation phase for a pico-PV PoA to come.
• Substituting fossil fuel based lighting with LED lighting systems. Indicative simplified baseline and monitoring methodologies for selected small-scale CDM project activity categories. Nov.2010.

Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) - Gold Standard

• SolarAid Microsolar Solar Lantern Project for Malawi: VERs already issued. Replacement of 39,000 kerosene lamps through solar lamps with 1.8 W module and other renewable energy devices. Crediting period: 26 May 10 - 25 May 19. Focus on capacity development and partly local production. Total of approx VERs planned. Monitoring of the first project year showed 1.635 units sold (and in use).
• SolarAid Microsolar Solar Lantern Project for Zambia: Verification pending. Crediting perdiod: 10 years. Project design same as Malawi Project. Total of approx. 25,000 VERs planned.
• D.light Rural Lighting Project Tanzania: 3.640,000 lamps of different models to be sold. Estimated total amount of VERs(depending on lamp types sold) approx. 500,000 VERs. Crediting period: 10 years.
• D.Light Rural Lighting Project India - PRE-CDM-VERs (of GS 600): PRE-CDM-VERs of above mentioned CDM project.

Further Information

• Further details on current (Aug. 2010) emissions reductions projects with pico PV Systems
• Solar Portal on energypedia
• Photovoltaic (PV)
• Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)