Solar Panels and the Quest for $1/Watt- We're there!

good article I remember when solar panels were popular in the 80's.

interesting

Thanks. I read an interesting article this morning about Boeing. They flew the first airplane using fuel cells for power, no emissions at all except water. Long way to go, but interesting I thought.

That is interesting- thanks so much for the story. We seem to have gone backwards! Or maybe they were worried about changing the climate by seeding water droplets all over the place :)

Absolutely wonderful article. Solar panels sure have come a long way. Advertisement and endorsement through the HGTV or TLC home improvement shows would help immensely to get the message to the public. When it becomes trendy for the consumer to use in their home building or remodeling projects, as well as cost effective, the true benefit for our planet will be realized.

Good points, Bonnie. I think that there is a gap between "the people" and "the possibilities" at the moment, except in a few places where the tax credits make the economics more viable than elsewhere, like California.

Also, the really new technologies are being made by relatively small companies, so I think that supplies of some of the panels aren't always as available as one would like.

On the other hand, there are quite a few solar installers, so the work can be done for anyone (with the funds), pretty much anywhere (in the US and much of Europe, certainly, and many other places, including, but not limited to, Australia and New Zealand).

Thanks for the feedback.

Cool! It's possible that we'll be upgrading a house with an eye to renewable energy.

That sounds great, Susan! I should have some more articles, on practical aspects of picking equipment and installers, in the next few weeks.

Great article, James! Here is some info that I have posted recently.

A report by the Prometheus Institute and Greentech Media forecasts that companies will spend between $80 billion and $200 billion on concentrating solar power, including the more than $30 billion worth of plants that companies have announced in just the last six months. By 2020, concentrating solar power will generate 18 gigawatts of electricity.

They forecast the total market for electricity generated with solar facilities to reach 288-gigawatt in 2020, with the following marketshare for the respective technologies:
- Concentrated solar thermal - 12 gigawatts
- Concentrated photo-voltaic - 6 gigawatts
- Photo-voltaic fixed flat-plate panels - 170 gigawats
- Tracking photo-voltaic - 100 gigawats

Personally, I'm convinced that growth will be even more spectacular than that, but it's interesting to speculate which technology will get the biggest marketshare where, i.e. for solar farms, as opposed to on rooftops of residential and commercial buildings.

I remember this report in Treehugger announcing on 14 August 2006 a 20-year power purchase agreement between Stirling Energy and Southern California Edison to construct a 4,500-acre 500-MW solar generating station in Southern California, 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles, capable of producing electricity at a cost of 0.06$/kWh. I'm convinced that many more solar farms will be built in the desert, using this technology (parabolic dish) or a variety of other technologies, such as solar troughs, power towers, photovoltaic panels, etc. Thin-film photo-voltaic material, such as by Nanosolar, First Solar and Ava Solar, promises to produce electricity at very low cost, making it ideal for solar farms.

Fixed photovoltaic panels dominate residential rooftops, but space on top of commercial buildings is more scarce and comes at a premium, compared to the abundance of space in deserts. This justifies more expensive facilities, such as in tracking photo-voltaic facilities that can be expected to grow rapidly, since tracking the sun can improve performance by 25% over fixed tilt PV systems. Another factor that can increase efficiency is the percentage of sunshine captured by the material and converted into electricity. Today's triple junction cells can capture as much as 40% or more of the sun's rays. For an example, have a look at Soliant Energy.

Let's watch these long overdue developments closely as they unfold and keep each other informed. It's both fascinating and exciting to finally see things happening!

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Thanks so much, Sam.

I had a very lengthy comment on my blog from Michelle Bennett, who wrote the original article on Cleantechnica.com.

She made a number of good points, and I wrote a very lengthy response that had some new information in it, or at least I think it is new. I'm starting to get confused about where I read things. Anyway, I think you'll like this if you haven't seen it, and if you have seen it, you probably already showed it to me... (I was up all night recovering a disk partition on my laptop, so my faculties are wobbly at the moment). So- the story is about how Denmark has so much excess wind power that they are going to put the whole country on electric cars and charge them with their excess wind capacity. Cool, I thought!

Thanks for posting this to Best Original Photos, Art and Writing for 2008

It's encouraging that solar finally seems to be gaining some traction after all these years. 1$/watt is an important threshold to have crossed. An administration which looks to the great possibility of this would be a big help.

Thanks for the comment, Gerry. I certainly agree.

Thanks to all for the comments. I'll comment back on your articles this weekend.

I have a strong opinion on the use of coal. I do not think it is as bad as they say it is. However, I am also a fan of solar. both solar and coal were made by God. God made products are all good.

Connie, that is a unique perspective, in my experience. If you want the truth from a professional, there are natural things that are far more harmful (toxic, fatal) than anything man has ever made. Take Ricin toxin, used to kill dissident Bulgarians by their secret service (the famous umbrella with the poison tip in London). It comes from plants. Man couldn't make anything this toxic if he tried (and some probably have tried). The elements themselves can be extremely toxic, including Mercury, Lead, Arsenic, Uranium, and Strontium, and I could go on for quite a while. The natural mold on peanut butter makes a substances that causes cancer. I'll stop there, but there is no generalized connection between "natural" and "safe", both in my opinion and based on a huge amount of well-know data.