Lara Abrams Communications
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The Abrams Clean Tech Report
Solfocus
Friday, February 17th, 2006Solar May Get Cheaper (http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=15764&hed=Solar+May+Get+Cheaper)
SolFocus says that its concentrator photovoltaics will cost only half the price of competing solar PV technologies.
February 16, 2006
The high price of solar panels has slowed the wide-scale adoption of solar energy, but news Thursday that a partnership could make half-priced solar power commercially available in a year may help change the game. The Palo Alto Research Center is partnering with solar company SolFocus to produce its cheaper concentrator photovoltaic technology. The technology includes small lenses and curved mirrors that concentrate sunlight onto solar cells. The cells use germanium instead of the most common material, silicon. While the high-efficiency material is expensive, SolFocus’ system uses so little of the germanium—1 square centimeter per panel—that the company is able to cut the installed price of solar in half, compared to the average price today, and still make a healthy margin. SolFocus estimates the current installed price of photovoltaic (PV) systems at about $7 per watt. Marc Cortez, a spokesperson for Sharp Electronics’ solar group, in August estimated the average price at about $8 per watt, while Solarbuzz, a research firm in San Francisco, said the systems average $5.15 per watt.
