Some good news. Looks like solar energy cheaper than coal is REALLY
close now.....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/dec/29/solarpower.renewableenergy
Solar energy 'revolution' brings green power closer
Panels start solar power 'revolution'
John Vidal
o John Vidal, environment editor
o The Guardian,
o Saturday December 29 2007
The holy grail of renewable energy came a step closer yesterday as
thousands of mass-produced wafer-thin solar cells printed on aluminium
film rolled off a production line in California, heralding what
British scientists called "a revolution" in generating electricity.
The solar panels produced by a Silicon Valley start-up company,
Nanosolar, are radically different from the kind that European
consumers are increasingly buying to generate power from their own
roofs. Printed like a newspaper directly on to aluminium foil, they
are flexible, light and, if you believe the company, expected to make
it as cheap to produce electricity from sunlight as from coal.
Yesterday Nanosolar said its order books were full until mid-2009 and
that a second factory would soon open in Germany where demand for
solar power has rocketed. Britain was unlikely to benefit from the
technology for some years because other countries paid better money
for renewable electricity, it added.
"Our first solar panels will be used in a solar power station in
Germany," said Erik Oldekop, Nanosolar's manager in Switzerland. "We
aim to produce the panels for 99 cents 50p a watt, which is
comparable to the price of electricity generated from coal. We cannot
disclose our exact figures yet as we are a private company but we can
bring it down to that level. That is the vision we are aiming at."
He added that the first panels the company was producing were aimed
for large- scale power plants rather than for homeowners, and that the
cost benefits would be in the speed that the technology could be
deployed. "We are aiming to make solar power stations up to 10MW in
size. They can be up and running in six to nine months compared to 10
years or more for coal-powered stations and 15 years for nuclear
plants. Solar can be deployed very quickly," said Oldekop.
Nanosolar is one of several companies in Japan, Europe, China and the
US racing to develop different versions of "thin film" solar
technology. It is owned by internet entrepreneur Martin Roscheisen who
sold his company to Yahoo for $450m and, with the help of the founders
of Google, the US government and other entrepreneurs in Silicon
Valley, has invested nearly $300m in commercialising the technology.
At the moment solar electricity costs nearly three times as much as
conventional electricity to generate, but Nanosolar's developments are
thought to have halved the price of producing conventional solar cells
at a stroke.
"This is the world's lowest-cost solar panel, which we believe will
make us the first solar manufacturer capable of profitably selling
solar panels at as little as 99 cents a watt," said Roscheisen yesterday.
However, the company, which claims to lead the "third wave" of solar
electricity, is notoriously secretive and has not answered questions
about its panels' efficiency or their durability. It is quite open
about wanting to restrict access to the technology to give it a market
advantage.
Jeremy Leggett, chief executive of Britain's leading solar energy
company, Solar Century, said that it would be "breathtaking" if the
technology proved as efficient as projected by the company. "This is a
revolution. But people are going to be amazed at other developments
taking place in solar technologies. We will be thrilled if this
technology is as efficient as the company says. It will not change the
direction of solar power in itself. Spectacular improvements are also
being made in other parts of the industry," he said.
Figures released yesterday by the Earth Policy Institute in Washington
showed that solar electricity generation was now the fastest-growing
electricity source, doubling its output every two years. It is now
attracting government and venture capital money on an unprecedented scale.
The technology is particularly exciting because it can be used nearly
everywhere. "You are talking about printing rolls of the stuff,
printing it on garages, anywhere you want it. It really is a big deal
in terms of altering the way we think about solar," said Dan Kamman,
director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory at the
University of California at Berkeley.
"The next industrial revolution will be based on these clean green
technologies," said Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth.
"If the UK wants to be part of it, as Gordon Brown says it does, then
it needs to rethink its strategies. Ministers have so far shown a
distinct lack of vision."
Power from light
Photovoltaic (PV) devices convert light into electrical energy. PV
cells are made of semiconductor materials such as silicon. When light
shines on a PV cell, the energy is transferred to electrons in the
atoms of the PV cell. These electrons become part of the electrical
flow, or current, in an electrical circuit. First wave photovoltaic
cell used thick silicon-wafer cells but were cumbersome and costly.
The second generation of photovoltaic materials were developed about
10 years ago and use very thin silicon layers. These brought the price
down dramatically but still need expensive vacuum processes in their
construction. The third wave of PV, now being developed by firms such
as Nanosolar, can print directly on to other materials and does not
use silicon.
From a surprisingly cold December in New Scotland,
ross mayhew.
posted in ClimateConcern
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