Comments on: Startup Hopes to Double the Power of Solar

By: Zachary Shahan

Zachary Shahan — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 01:19:00 +0000

Jigar Shah recently provided a guest post for CleanTechnica and he didn’t seem to be focused on panel costs: http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/04/are-subsidies-holding-back-u-s-solar-deployment-cleantechnica-exclusive-from-jigar-shah/

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 02:05:00 +0000

If they get that high, sure. But there’s a lot of space between 20% and 38%.

By: dynamo.joe

dynamo.joe — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 01:37:00 +0000

But 38% is their design goal, which would mean you only need to install 40% of the panels of 15%eff cells.
That seems like it oughta entail signifigant savings.

By: mds

mds — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 15:25:00 +0000

They need to get significantly higher than 20% since mono-cast Si, along with tough competition, will be taking cSi to over 20% at very low cost of panels over next few years.

By: mds

mds — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 15:21:00 +0000

“their cost is just one dollar per watt to install”They should be talking about everything accept the panels. You’re right it’s not clear. Strategy is good if they can do as they claim. Many are so used to the cost of the panels being the driver (Jigar Shah) that they don’t realize the PV game has changed. It is no longer about the cost of the panels. It is now more about the total installed cost, particularly in the USA market. The BOS costs, including installation, are now the larger cost problem for solar PV. If they can actually double efficiency while keeping panel costs below $1/W, then they could significantly reduce total installed costs. That is a reasonable claim. Now, can they actually do this? Interesting! This is not the only new solar tech on the horizon that will keep up the competition in this market. The cost of solar PV will continue to drop going forward.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 16:13:00 +0000

Current spot prices for cells (not finished panels, but the cells) is $0.35/watt. There’s not significant room to lower that cost to a degree that would reflect “dollars per watt” at the installed level.

Once the cell is manufactured, be they 15% or 20% efficiency cells the process to turn them into panels and install them is the same.
A 20% efficient will use 25% less material (frame, glass, etc.) to turn into a panel than and 25% less racking/labor to install. I don’t see this making the difference between “just $1″ and “a few dollars per watt”.

By: Matthew Todd Peffly

Matthew Todd Peffly — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 13:09:00 +0000

Well from the link it says
“Richard Chleboski, CEO of Bandgap said that the long term goal is to double the power generation of the cell, but already the technology allows them to create cells that convert 20% of the solar energy into electricity at a cost of just $1 per watt to produce and install; this compares with 15% which is the average efficiency of modern solar cells, at a cost of a few dollars per watt.”

By: Anne

Anne — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 12:01:00 +0000

“their cost is just one dollar per watt to install”

This is a vague statement. Are they only talking about installation costs of the panels (labor + mounting frame)? Or the all-in price? Or BoS cost (=everything except the panels)?

By: CoBaja

CoBaja — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 11:47:00 +0000

Nano wires are stil quite expensive, but people could build diy, simple and dirt cheap solar panels using recycled pop-cans: http://solar.freeonplate.com/diy-how-to/DIY-solar-panels.htm