[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: FW: Cheap Solar Cells are Here

Lawrence Lile LLile at projsolco.com
Thu Aug 17 05:53:52 CDT 2006 

"too cheap to meter" was of course a toungue in cheek reference to the Nuclear Industrie's wild claims.  We've all been watching the prices of solar panels for years - $1 a peak watt is the "magic number" that makes solar as cheap as grid electricity almost everywhere.  If these guys claims are true, they will break the dollar-a-watt barrier.  However, vaporware is common in Silicon Valley, sounds like these guys learned their marketing techniques from there. 
 
I'm on thier mailing list anyway, and we are all watching.  Meanwhile, I'm roughing in a wire from my roof down to the battery room! 
 
--Lawrence Lile

________________________________

From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org on behalf of Keith Winston
Sent: Wed 8/16/2006 10:55 PM
To: Greenbuilder list
Subject: [BULK] Re: [Greenbuilding] FW: Cheap Solar Cells are Here



There are several very big thin-film  project under way, Nanosolar is
the biggest. It is exciting, but of course we should all be cautious
about "too cheap to meter." As of a month ago or so, Nanosolar was still
deciding where to site their factory: they hadn't even purchased, much
less broken, ground. I will be SOOOO impressed if they meet their
timeline of full-scale production by the end of 2007. One way or another
though, it does signal all kinds of exciting things in the PV world:
why, there's a thin-film company in Germany that will already sell for
under $3/watt in quantity. Silicon is under $5/watt (these are just
module prices). Things are coming down VERY fast.

Keith


Lawrence Lile wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> The Future is here!  They predict dramatic drop in Solar Cell Prices,
> huge increase in production capacity! 
> 
> Solar Electricity will be "Too Cheap To Meter" (Ha Ha, remember that
> one?)   I'm ecstatic. 
> 
>  --Lawrence Lile
>
>      
>     Go to Original
> <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/280625_solarcell10.html>
>
>     Solar Cells Change Electricity Distribution
>     By Dave Freeman and Jim Harding
>     The Seattle Post Intelligencer
>
>     Thursday 10 August 2006
>
>     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.
>
>     We approach this news as current and former public electric utility
> executives, sympathetic with consumer and environmental concerns. South
> Africa and California technologies rely on the same alloy - called CIGS
> (for copper-indium-gallium-selenide) - deposited in an extremely thin
> layer on a flexible surface. 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.
>
>     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.
>
>     What makes this particular news stand out? Cost, scale and financial
> strength. The cost of the facility is about one-tenth that of recently
> completed silicon cell facilities.
>
>     Second, Nanosolar is scaling up rapidly from pilot production to 430
> megawatts, using a technology it equates to printing newspapers. That
> implies both technical success and development of a highly automated
> production process that captures important economies of scale. No one
> builds that sort of industrial production facility in the Bay Area -
> with expensive labor, real estate and electricity costs - without
> confidence.
>
>     Similar facilities can be built elsewhere. Half a dozen competitors
> also are working along the same lines, led by private firms Miasole and
> Daystar, in Sunnyvale, Calif., and New York.
>
>     But this is really not about who wins in the end. We all do. 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.
>
>     The announcements are good news for consumers worried about high
> energy prices and dependence on the Middle East, utility executives
> worried about the long-term viability of their next investment in
> central station power plants, transmission, or distribution, and for all
> of us who worry about climate change. It is also good news for the
> developing world, where electricity generally is more expensive, mostly
> because electrification requires long-distance transmission and serves
> small or irregular loads. Inexpensive solar cells are an ideal solution.
>
>
>     Meanwhile, the prospect of this technology creates a conundrum for
> the electric utility industry and Wall Street. Can - or should - any
> utility, or investor, count on the long-term viability of a coal,
> nuclear or gas investment? The answer is no. In about a year, we'll see
> how well those technologies work. The question is whether federal energy
> policy can change fast enough to join what appears to be a revolution.
>
>     --------
>
>     Dave Freeman has been general manager of multiple utilities,
> including the Tennessee Valley Authority, Los Angeles Department of
> Water and Power and New York Power Authority. Jim Harding is an energy
> and environment consultant in Olympia and formerly director of power
> planning and forecasting at Seattle City Light. Also contributing was
> Roger Duncan, assistant general manager of Austin Energy in Austin,
> Texas.
>
>   Print This Story
> <http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/printer_081406EC.shtml>   E-mail This
> Story <http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/%20>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lawrence Lile [mailto:LLile at projsolco.com]
> Sent: Monday, August 14, 2006 5:46 PM
> To: Michaelieu, Qhyrrae
> Subject: Emailing: hotdogsmaycausegeneticmutations
>
> 
>
>  <<hotdogsmaycausegeneticmutations.url>> 
>
> The Low Down on Hot Dogs:
>
> 
>
> 
>
> 
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060814/sc_space/hotdogsmaycausegeneticmu
>
> tations
>
> 
>
> Hey, how bout a nice, juicy Oscar Meyer?
>
> 
>
> --Love,
>
> 
>
> Larry
>
>
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>
>
>
>  

--
Keith Winston
Earth Sun Energy Systems
3927 Madison St.
Hyattsville, MD 20781
301-980-6325
keith at earthsunenergy.com
www.EarthSunEnergy.com



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