Quantum breakthough in solar

[greenman3610]

The writers are highly credible, Mr Freeman is the very
innovative former
head of the TVA under Jimmy Carter.
http://www.energybulletin.net/19262.html
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/280625_solarcell10.html

In separate announcements over the past few months, researchers at the University of Johannesburg and at Nanosolar, a private company in Palo Alto, have announced major breakthroughs in reducing the cost of solar electric cells. While trade journals are abuzz with the news, analysis of the potential implications has been sparse.
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Both companies claim that the technology reduces solar cell production costs by a factor of 4-5. That would bring the cost to or below that of delivered electricity in a large fraction of the world.
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Thin solar films can be used in building materials, including roofing materials and glass, and built into mortgages, reducing their cost even further. Inexpensive solar electric cells are, fundamentally, a "disruptive technology," even in Seattle, with below-average electric rates and many cloudy days. Much like cellular phones have changed the way people communicate, cheap solar cells change the way we produce and distribute electric energy. The race is on.

[DemonFighterLives]

1. Thanks for the story

:dem:

[saltpoint]

2. I love it. This is just great news -- very encouraging.

[skids]

3. Good news. To add some perspective, though...

Really what matters is not what is hapenning in the labs, but what is hapenning in the factories. The news is good there too, but not so good that people should adopt the "wait for the prices to come down" mentality. Companies already are cutting costs in producing panels by more every year, but they are not passing those savings on to the consumer, rather they are spending them on expanding their capacity (and that's a good thing.) For example EverGreen is already scaling up their "string ribbon" technology that is much cheaper to manufacture than the majority of panels on the market. There are lots of advanced technologies right now being brought into mass manufacturing.

Of course, before doing a solar electricity installation on one's house, it always makes sense to first do a solar thermal (hot water) installation because that has a better bang-for-the-buck and is a good starter project. In some cases, you may also be able to get a better payback on a geoexchange system and it would be best to do that before PV.

Even so, the silicon shortage that has brought prices up is now "priced in" to the market. At this point the only reason for solar panel prices to rise from year to year will be plain old inflation. So if you buy into solar PV units now, you'll be generating electricity for those years you would be waiting for the price to fall. It will probably end up being a wash as to whether you would have done better financially by waiting -- but sooner than later is better from the standpoint of reducing CO2 emissions.

[Moochy]

4. 430 Megawatts

from the article :
"The California team is backed by a powerful team of private investors, including Google's two founders and the insurance giant Swiss Re, among others. It has announced plans to build a $100 million production facility in the San Francisco Bay area that is slated to be operational at 215 megawatts next year, and soon thereafter capable of producing 430 megawatts of cells annually."


Compare with the Nearby Hunter's Point facility which generates generates 215 megawatt of power.
Which, by the way is closing!! :bounce: http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/news_in_brief/cpuc_app_pge_plant_closure_060315.shtml

[skids]

6. It is a watershed moment.

CIGS cells are currently only manufactured on small pilot lines. When they do reach 430MW of production, it will be a 1500% increase in production of CIGS cells worldwide, and suddenly these types of solar cells will account for a large portion of the total cells manufactured. If they do make 215MW next year that will be a 700% annual growth rate, just from this one company. That's an incredible growth rate for a new technology.

[CONewRevolution]

5. I'm Ready -- I Want 'Em

I have a big south-by-south-eastern facing wall that's just begging for some lower-cost solar panels. I'm also putting in a trout pond water feature with water circulation I want to run from solar and batteries.

The current generation of panels is too expensive for my wallet for the power produced.

I'd love to be able to run my toys, AND feed some electricity back into the grid on bright sunny Colorado days!

[NMDemDist2]

35. Welcome to DU CONewRevolution!

:hi:

[bvar22]

7. Think where we would be if our leadership....

...had made Alternative Clean Energy a NATIONAL PRIORITY!!!!

Jimmy Carter (God bless him) was the last Environmental and Alternative Energy president.
If Reagan had not dismantled his energy programs, the US would most probably be CLEAN and NOT dependent on the Middle East.


The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[al bupp]

8. K & R

[BrightKnight]

9. A lot of people are going to make mega bucks from this.

The Google founders are apparently at the right place again. They probably would not think about taking it public for a while. I would invest in that IPO.

[pitohui]

10. thanks this is badly needed EOM

.

[lonestarnot]

11. ewww yes! I've been waiting for this! Conversion soon!

[lonestarnot]

12. ewww yes! I've been waiting for this! Conversion soon!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

13. They'll find a way to kill this off somehow

They HAVE TO. The concept goes against everything they've been working toward.

Remember a few months ago a remarkable breakthrough in cheap, low-powered LED-based lighting? Has anyone heard anything further about that one?

I rest my case.

[NEOBuckeye]

23. No, "they" won't succeed

Because the world is running out of fossil fuels. Sooner or later, we must switch over to renewable alternatives.

We can do it peacefully right now, or in violent revolution later as oil and coal become increasingly scarce, but for the future of humanity the transition must occur.

[KansDem]

29. Another reason to boot the oil CEOs out of the White House...

The last sentence in the article:

The question is whether federal energy policy can change fast enough to join what appears to be a revolution.

The sooner we get the Bushistas out of government, the sooner we can start insisting our federal energy policies reflect this change...

[earth mom]

14. K & R! eom

[NuttyFluffers]

15. HUZZAH! if i only had the money to invest...

this is sooo cool! if i remember correctly reducing solar by a factor of 4-5 brings it on par or cheaper than most fossil fuels. with wind already comparable to fossil fuels this is great news! there's potential to switch to harvesting better ambient energy around us.

i long for the breakthrough of wind generators harvesting the jet streams. that would totally kick ass. relatively reliable and consistent 200+ mph winds -- maybe something involving kites? :D

[Wonk]

16. I really hope this is real. That'd be great. nt

[killbotfactory]

17. Uh-oh.. there goes the "solar is too expensive" excuse

Golly, who could imagine research and development could improve on something?

[tsuki]

18. I have been watching this. The Germans have licensed the

technology, so South Africa is building a plant, and power station. Looks good.

[GeorgeGist]

19. Thanks for some good news... for a change.

Unfortunately, a Google news search revealed only 24 reports on this; none from a mainstream media source.

[petgoat]

20. "none from a mainstream media source"

Elvis making solar panels from tinfoil, huh? :)

Actually, if nanosolar's web page is to believe, they have some
heavy hitters financing them:

http://www.nanosolar.com/investors.htm



Nanosolar is a privately held company with financial backing from an elite group of private technology investors, including:

* Benchmark Capital -- the venture firm behind such franchise companies as eBay, Handspring, Juniper Networks and Red Hat Software;

* MDV - Mohr Davidow Ventures -- the venture firm behind such leading companies as Rambus, Epigram, FormFactor, and Agile Software;

* SAC Capital -- one of the world's leading public/private investment funds;

* GLG Partners -- one of the world's leading public/private investment funds;

* Swiss Re -- the world's leading and most diversified reinsurer;

* Grazia Equity -- the original backer of Conergy AG, the world's largest PV system integrator;

* Mitsui & Co., Ltd. -- Japan's oldest and largest international trading company with over 300 years of business presence in the world and more than $100 billion in annual business;

* OnPoint Technologies -- the US Army's private equity fund;

* Stanford University -- the place where many of our team members received their education;

* Individual investors including Martin Roscheisen, Sergey Brin, Carl & Larry Page, Jeff Skoll (via Capricorn Management), Klaus Tschira (via FirstVentury), Dietmar Hopp, and Christian Reitberger.

[caligirl]

21. Applied Materials is jumping into this business too.

[mom cat]

22. Fantastic! Personal energy independance is critical to freedom!

[Vidar]

24. Great news. Hope it pans out.

[Straight Shooter]

25. This is good news.

:thumbsup:

[garybeck]

26. If true, what this means is...

if you notice, in the last few weeks there are similar news stories about both oil drilling and solar technology. the slate/oil fields in Colorado offer huge supplies of oil, if they can figure out how to extract it. plus they found a new huge well in the gulf just a couple days ago I believe.

and at the same time this new discovery about solar cells offers a huge new "power supply" at a greatly reduced cost.

what does this mean to us?

it means that when we shape energy policy over the next few years, we may be taking "supply" out of the equation. We might not be worried about running out of oil. and we might not be worried about cost.

this means that the focus of the energy debate will be on one thing only - CO2 emmissions and global warming. that will become the greatest difference between solar and oil. If we truly have a huge supply of oil within our borders, we can take the "going to run out soon" problem out of the equation. But the problems with our environment remain, and will actually be increased, if a huge supply is found and tapped.

So if we really have more oil than we thought, and solar cells are shooting down in price, the question is - do we want to keep polluting the air we breath and keep contributing to global warming, or do we want to use clean solar?

the answer is obvious to me.

[womanofthehills]

27. Off Grid Living - adding panels little by little

Living out in the country it would have cost me the same to go solar or have the electric company put in electric polls. I chose to go solar - love having no electric bill. Panels and charge controllers keep getting better and I keep upgrading. You can start with a few panels and keep adding. However, there is maintenance involved that might not appeal to some people.

I also pump the water out of my well with it's own solar pump without a battery so it only pumps up when the sun is shining to a holding tank. However, I'm still using propane for water heating but someday would like a solar water heater.

[Canuckistanian]

28. This is what's going to power our world after oil is gone

But we'll still have to lower our expectations. The days of cheap, almost unlimited power is over.

[eppur_se_muova]

30. Thank you for that cold splash of perspective.

And let's not forget that however we meet our energy needs, all it takes is a further population increase and we will be in a worse shortage situation all over again.

[Canuckistanian]

40. Let's just say I'm expecting it

And I'm preparing my 9-year old son (in a subtle way) for the day when we won't have that nice, neat little plug in the wall that can power anything.

[MichiganVote]

31. Nope, it will power it BEFORE oil is gone

Crystal ball and all that...

[autorank]

32. greenman, thanks for the boost. This is what we need, exactly.

If it's at costs here, we can subsidize it "there" and China and India can keep growing without choking the world on top of our routine, which is bad enough. I'll check this out but I'm glad to see this on the table.

[StrictlyRockers]

34. Way cool new technology. Green energy is the wave of the future.

[slaveplanet]

33. What's new?

I've heard about nanosolar for at least two years now.

They are Darpa funded btw,...I'm skeptical, not about it's capabilities, but about it being mass produced. I doubt is this stuff will make it to the hands of the general public in the US, TPTB will throw up roadblocks.

[Raster]

36. These advances in solar are wonderful. But we also need to change the

way energy is distributed and sold. Big energy may appear to be singing a new tune, but truth be told, any energy source that could not be SOLD was nothing big energy wanted any part of. Whenever an alternate energy technology is priced, it is always from the big energy perspective of central control and for-profit. Yes, the cost of solar has been prohibitive, but a large portion of that prohibitive cost has been big energy refusing to research and invest in technologies they ultimately view as a threat, i.e. solar. There should be solar cells on every roof in the United States that receives enough sunlight. Realign the grid as an alternate distribution source and make most of the buildings in the United States energy efficient. In the process make the United States a great deal closer to energy efficiency. Of course the Saudis, the Texas Petroleum Mafia and their wholly-owned subsidiary the Rethuglican Party won't be happy.

[Jersey Ginny]

38. Cap and trade system makes solar profitable for energy companies

Solar is not a threat b/c companies are increasingly forced to have a certain and growing percentage of "green energy." My solar panels (coming this spring!) will be a way for my energy company to meet the green energy requirement without having to actually build and maintain the system. Cap and trade creates a market for green energy and CO2 emissions. Works well in Europe.

[Clarkie1]

37. I'd like to own stock in this company someday.

I'll be keeping an eye out for when the go public.

[Kurovski]

39. K&R!

We read about this a few months ago, it looks like it's no pipe-dream. It's really a breakthrough!