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, SolFocusí
system uses so little of the germaniumó1 square centimeter per panelóthat
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 Electronicsí 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.
Gary Conley, CEO of SolFocus, said the company will
begin shipping its systems to the city of Shanghai, as well as to undisclosed
customers in Hawaii and California, for pilot testing within the year.
These tests will include 2 megawatts of PV. Mr.
Conley said even at that low volume, the average cost of the technology
before shipping or margins will be $2.40 per watt. At 1 gigawatt of annual
production, which will take several years to reach, the cost will be $0.50
per watt, he said.
Mr. Conley said the first-generation technology,
targeted at large field power plants, will be commercially available in
a year to 18 months. The mirrors in that system are ìslumpedî
in the way that windshields are made, so they can be made ìpretty
much anywhere,î he said.
Second Generation
At the same time, SolFocus is working with the Palo
Alto Research Center (PARC) on developing the second generation.
Using PARCís expertise in optics, cell mounts,
tile pressing, and other processing technologies, SolFocus says the second-generation
product will be even cheaper. They could reach $0.32 per watt at volumes
of 1 gigawatt annually and will be lighter and smaller than the first-generation
system. |
The second-generation technology, made using a glass-pressing
process used to make bright LED lights, reduces the mirrors and lenses
into a single solid glass tile. Corning is already manufacturing the prototypes,
Mr. Conley said. Using this technology, at volumes of 10 megawatts, the
price of the tiles will match the price of glass, he said.
Those second-generation tiles will be used for commercial
rooftops, instead of large field power plants, he said. But the second-generation
product can only be made in modern electronics assembly plants, and thatís
not ideal for every situation, he said, such as in Africa. He noted that
the second-generation systems will be rolling out in about two years.
Analysts have been skeptical of concentrator PV,
saying many of the systems have reliability problems. Concentrator systems
require direct sunlight and must track the sun, so many have a number of
moving parts which can fail. Also, many of the systems leave mirrors exposed
to the elements.
Competition Abounds
Energy Innovations, a concentrator PV company that
raised a $16.5-million round of venture capital funding in June, said its
system is expected to last 15 years, compared with the 20- to 25-year life
span of most solar panels (see Energy Innovations Gets Cash).
Not only is SolFocus claiming its systems will reach
a 20-year life span by the time it commercializes, but itís also
claiming it will offer its products at a dollar less than the $4.50 per
watt that Energy Innovations is expecting to charge at its launch.
Steve Chadima, chief marketing officer at Energy
Innovations, said SolFocusí technology is ìvery clever;
a good design.î
But heís not concerned about competition,
he said.
ìItís a very interesting technology,
and I think thereís going to be a lot of different solutions to
the solar problem,î he said. ìThey have one, we have
another, and the market is so large and the potential is so great, that
thereís going to be room for a variety of different solutions. We
wish them luck.î
Mr. Conley said SolFocus is raising money for its
Series A round, which it expects to close at the end of September. SolFocus
is raising $8 million to $10 million to add to the $800,000 of financing
that Mr. Conley brought to the company. SolFocus also received in-kind
funding from an undisclosed ìmajor corporation,î as well as
$1.5 million of in-kind fundingósuch as research and facilitiesófrom
PARC. |