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The flexible foil base means that the modules can be shaped for different applications. "You could install them on top of hybrid electric cars and curved tiles on rooftops," says Murozono.
"I think the technology works," says Branz. But the question is whether the company can make the solar cells more efficient. The cells currently being produced have efficiencies of only about 10 percent, he says. "Right now, most solar cells are 14 to 15 percent efficient."
Reducing the cost by 30 percent does not help if 30 percent more cells are needed to produce the same amount of electricity, says Branz.
Murozono says that there are ways to make the cells more efficient--for example, by improving the purity and quality of the silicon. Reducing the size of the spheres to 0.8 millimeters should also improve performance, while reducing costs even further by using 20 percent less silicon. "We are going to improve the efficiency to 13 percent within 2008, and 15 percent by 2010," Murozono says.
"There's a worldwide shortage in terms of high-quality silicon," says Charles Cromer, a researcher at the Florida Solar Energy Center, in Cocoa, FL. This shortage has largely been driven by the growth of demand for integrated circuits and solar cells, and has only served to push up the price of silicon-intensive photovoltaics. So a solar cell that uses far less silicon than its competitors should give CV21 a real edge in terms of reducing costs. "But just because they can make them cheaper doesn't mean they will be selling them half price to consumers," Cromer says.
Thermal-power plants that store heat for cloudy days could solve some of the problems with solar power.
First Solar's thin-film technology is now challenging silicon panels at large-scale solar-power facilities.
If the efficiency is not better and the price is not better and the durability is suspect, who's going to buy it? They better sell it at half price or stay out of the business--for everyone's sake.
It would be nice to see a semi-annual tracking of all these new technologies. They all come on the scene promising various things and then most seem to just sink. I wonder if some graph/spreadsheet could be published on all these solar (and bio-fuel) efforts.
With solar, you have many
Heliovolt, First Solar, Nanosolar etc etc. How are they doing? Where are they at?
nanosolar, in particular, is doing well. Their initial volume was all purchased in bulk (I believe by european customers). Thus they've been doing fine getting things rolling, but product still isn't generally available so sites haven't considered it newsworthy (they think: "We already told you they were doing it, so unless they fail or something new happens like the product hitting local retailers, why should we update?")
But what I would really like to know is how things are going with combining technology/i.p. from different companies. If they can reach deals on how to share technology so 1 new product can get the benefit of both breakthroughs, prices can drop dramatically.
Your suggestion on combining talent/inventions is simple and good, unfortunely it will never happen. If people can work together for the common good, this will be a much better world.
The promise is in the raw materials
CIGS and standard silicon both have some raw material problems.
Right now CIGS can be produced cheaply, but how about when Galium and Selenium start to feel the crunch.
Silicon shouldn't be that much of a long term problem, but if we're making a true push toward solar we're going to need a hundred times what we're using now, not even mentioning the still blooming computer usage of silicon in China and India.
Demand will most likely continue to rise, and supply might be under a crunch.
Plus, this is technology. Maybe it will lead to something else.
It seems that the cost of solar cells per unit of usable electricty keeps comming down while the cost of oil (not counting the environmental or social or political costs) continues to climb. Isn't it just a matter of time before "oil" becomes obsolete as a means of producing most of our energy?
Exactly. With the storage capacity and cost-effectiveness of batteries coming down and solar cells becoming more affordable, a convergence is coming that will lead to a revolution. Put a solar panel bank on the roof and an electric car in the garage and you can basically forget about high oil prices!
that it has developed an effective process that enables waste silicon to be made available for solar power - http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/22504.wss
The news is looking very good indeed - if the cost savings are passed through to consumers; installing solar power will pay for itself in less than 5 years in a sunny climate and 10 years in the UK.
Dear clever people:
Our company, Silacon, in association with Los Alamos National Laboratory invented a similar array that is useful for PV and blast absorption. Your idea should move to LANL.gov.
this has been around a long time
there was a Canadian company that spent $170 mn trying to make this work and failed. All these attempts to save on silicon material costs are useless if the resultant cell is only 2% less on efficiency. cost of silicon @ $70/kg = $0.50 / Wp. At $6/Wp installed, 1% efficiency loss equals $0.37 at an average 15% cell. Lose more than 1.3% on efficiency, and even free silicon would not make your cells competitive.
It seems that the cost of the complex reflectors, the attachment of the silicon spheres, the wiring, etc. will be an issue. Also, is the whole assembly to be potted in a transparent sealant? if not, the dust collection will quickly reduce efficiency and the array will be difficult to clean up.
{CV21 started production of its cells in October; the first of its 10-kilowatt modules go on sale this month.}
Wow! I guess they ship these 10kw modules on really BIG trucks?
I just jumped by accident on this paper, while searching for the available technologies to produce different sizes of silicon beads: this is what my research project carried me to deal with...
So,
does anybody know how these guys produce the mentioned 1 mm diameter silicon beads? And what kind of silicon is used for these energy applications?
I too am looking for these beads. Have you had any luck. please call me if you have any info. (405)550-2232 thanks, Kristi
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cripdyke
52 Comments
promising, but...
there have been quite a number of techs promising to cut the cost in half....and some of them, especially nanosolar, are already doing it.
Also, this doesn't seem to be particularly conducive to combining with other techniques that are just now ready to move out of the lab into the market. Some other techs are designed in such a way that they would still benefit from others' advances.
What isn't noted, however, in the text is that the costs here are the costs of manufacture. The tech described, however, is perfectly positioned to save a bundle on installation as well. So...if they can achieve their 50% production cost, and the installation costs are further reduced, the relative ease of manufacture could allow them to build plants in multiple countries and reduce shipping & tariff costs leading to a genuinely competitive product.
So, I give it a 6 out of 10 compared to other techniques that have just left the lab or just hit the market (and the ones in between, such as having finished R&D but the plant isn't up to full production yet).
And what's nice is that it is indigenous to Japan - the other techs that rate higher than this one aren't. With their notable barriers to foreign competition, the Japanese gov't and MITI might be a significant barrier to the economic boost that solar pv will be getting elsewhere in the world ...unless local pv costs fall based on entirely japanese IP/manufacture.
Nice to see that Japan won't (really: might not) be pumping out extra CO2 just because of MITI over the next 8 to 10 years.
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