The report says that the solar market has experienced as strong growth in 2011; with falling cost and rising employment creation. Some facts of the Solar Market in 2011 have been recorded in this article:

1. Solyndra – was part of a Growing Industry

Unfortunately, Solyndra filed for bankruptcy in August 2011. However, this doesn’t mean that the market was weak. On the contrary, the market expanded by 140 percent and cost decreased by 40 percent. Solyndra failed to compete but the solar-energy market remains strong, as ‘90 percent of Americans believe that it is critical to progress towards the expansion of solar energy.

2. U.S Solar Industry Employees Above 100,000 Americans
In the recent years, the solar industry has become a growing employer. In America above 5,000 companies are employing more than 100,000 Americans in small, medium and large green solar companies. According to the solar Foundation’s national Job Census 2011, people were employed as engineers, administrative professionals, sales people, installers, electricians, plumbers, contractors and roofers. New job opportunity in the solar industry has been beneficial during the severe economic downturn.

3. Currently, the Solar Industry is one of American’s fastest growing sectors.

Most American companies support the growth of solar industry; This includes companies such as Google, Whole Foods, Target, Johnson & Johnson, Walgreens, Safeway and others, which have invested significantly.

4. Cost of Solar Panels has Decreased by 40 %

In U.S there are approximately 1.5 million houses having solar water heaters while solar energy is currently powering 730,000 households. Yet, with increasing research and development as well as bulk production solar panels are getting cheaper. Since 2010 to 2011, the price of solar cells has decreased by more than 40 percent while only 2011’s second to third quarter experienced a fall in price by 14.4 percent.

5. Cut-throat competition in a Growing solar Industry
United state have experienced a tremendous growth in the export of solar technology, which highly positive for the domestic industry with job creation. In 2010, the net export of solar products reached $2 billion.

Companies in the solar industry are operating in a very uncertain environment with high dependency on governmental support. These investment mechanisms are determining the market losers as well as winners. In 2011, more than 22,000 energy projects were completed across the 50 states, with a total private investment amounting to $23 billion. The Congress is pushing for additional support to promote the industry over 2012.

In America, Solar really works well, and 2011 was a great year for the solar industry. Yet, constant struggle and devotion are required to drive the industry in 2012 together with well devised energy policies.

Source: Clean Technica

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Masdar holds the permits to the world’s first energy export development. Although a design was chosen for Masdar’s headquarters, the company says it will be electing a different model. The original design was chosen by Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill Architecture.

The headquarters will be built in the capital city of Abu Dhabi. In response to questioning, Masdar has stated that their headquarters will be built in phases, according to the economic circumstances and market needs of the present time. Although Masdar has made these comments, they have not said whether or not their headquarters will actually make more energy than it consumes.

Using a 22 million-dollar government grant, Masdar was to create a carbon neutral town, called Masdar city, where individuals and companies could practice renewable-energy developments. However, the advocate for the Middle East’s most impressive plan to harness expendable energy had to admit to their setback following the financial crisis in 2006. The first stage of the city has been pushed back until 2015.

Masdar said that their new headquarters, which will be the centerpiece of Masdar City, will obey the maintainable construction customs of the city. According to Gordon Gill, a partner at Masdar, Mubadala Development, the parent company to Masdar and Masdar itself has been having second thoughts about the new building.

Gordon has also commented via phone on a September 8 interview. Gordon said that the slab for the headquarters was built in 2009. However, Mubadala Development and Masdar have made various changes to the building such as budget, size, and tenants. Gordon will hear in roughly a month, whether the project is a go or not.

In 2006, the United Arab Emirates, who hold seven percent of global oil reserves, began suggesting building proposals for the new headquarters. In July 2008, oil, prices rose roughly $40 a barrel from 2004.

In order to branch out its economy, Abu Dhabi began evolving new industries. As the capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi holds the majority of the oil areas. In order to be the forerunner in renewable energy, Abu Dhabi has begun capitalizing on wind and solar panel projects. The goal of this country is to be producing around 7 percent of its power needs through these renewable power springs by the year 2020.

Originally, the headquarters of Masdar was to produce three times more energy than was necessary to run the building. Annually, at this rate, Masdar’s headquarters was to create 5.5 GW of renewable energy. To cool the building, the headquarters was to have 11 glass-closed towers that achieve results by expelling warm air through the roof.

Autodesk Inc is a company that provided software for this pitch. A senior manager of sustainability with Autodesk Inc has been reported to have said that the headquarters of Masdar was to start creating energy during its construction. Emma Stewart has also reported that the building was to be built starting with the cooling cones that support the roof. The rest of the building was to be built around these structures.

Masdar has reported that the primary phase of the new headquarters was to commence in the later part of 2013. The company has commented that pictures of the new headquarters are not available.

At the current time, Masdar City is comprised of student facilities and a university that has joined up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

By the year 2020, The UAE is hoping to have raised $100 billion from investors outside their company. These funds will be raised through a presentation and will pay for sustainable energy projects.

Source: Times of Oman and EV-Wind

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The industry ultimate objective in Spain is to install 10,000 MW by 2020. This goal was based on the current situation that the industry has installed 5,000 MW as concluded from the CSP Markets Report 2011-2012.

To achieve 2525.3 MW Concentrating Solar Power capacity by 2014 the industry needs to construct 61 plants in South Spain as a target territory in 11 provinces. The industry succeeded to implement the first milestone by installing the capacity of 852.4MW with its 21 operational plants. There are another 40 plants that are pending for construction.

The initial defects in the Concentration Solar Power Industry

The obstacle the industry faced when it started its project in building solar plants in 2007 was the obligation to purchase at least 50% of the requisite parts from abroad like what occurred in the foundation of PS10 and Andasol in 2007. On the other side, messages are delivered to the new entrants in the CSP market from India to South Africa. However, the brighter side in 2010 is that 80% of the built plants is Spanish made.

The successful Spanish experience has proven the importance of the industry and its performance on the regional development. Besides that in near future, a favorable regulatory environment is promoting the concept of attracting manufacturers to Spain to offer assistance for the indigenous market. In addition, to the strong supply of components such as tubes, glass, steel structures and pumps. It was also proven that opportunities of jobs can increase relatively by utilizing labour intensive technology than implanting a single plant using other renewable technologies.

The CSP industry in Spain showed its advantages and its disadvantages, but certainly it became mature enough to teach CSP industry worldwide as a result of its strong track-record. No doubt, CSP is facing a year full of challenges and difficulties, including threats from completive energy sources and changes to feed-in-tariffs. As a result of that, the industry became unfortunately unstable in recent months.

Eventually, CSP didn’t stop at that point, but also it posted the CSP Markets Report 2011-2012 which provides an overview of the Spanish industry, top level analysis and conclusion of the lessons from this whole Spanish experience. Finally, it puts a plan or even an image of all available opportunities to make the solar industry lucrative for emerging of economies from Morocco to Australia as pervasive.

Source: CSP and EV-Wind

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Spain’s three biggest utility companies – Iberdrola, Endesa and Gas Natural – who have long been lobbying the Spanish government to stop subsidising the increase of solar and other alternative energy projects is now being challenged by the renewable energy source lobby.

There are even deeper divisions between the traditional energy industry and the alternative sector than elsewhere in the world, according to the Director for Regulation of Iberdrola, Carlos Salle. In an interview with The Guardian said that there are disagreements between renewable and non-renewable sources in Spain. The worse is that it steaming concerns.

The relations between the two sectors were somewhat funny – but only just – it was commonly referred to as being like a “war”, by a Madrid businessman from one of Spain’s top companies. Spain’s solar industry body, Asif – Asociación de la Industria Fotovoltaica – has accused politicians of justifying subsidy cuts by falsely overstating the costs of solar generated energy.

Spain’s utility companies have already subsidised solar and wind energy projects to the tune of €20bn of which the solar sector received €2.6bn (£2.28bn) These funds, which have yet to be paid back by the government, are more than the country or utility companies can easily afford.

The utility companies’ credit rating is in danger of being demoted if their tariff deficit is not addressed.

About a decade ago power black-outs caused the government to encourage the utility companies to build gas and coal generating plants. These are now generating at only about 50% of capacity and consequently, are steadily losing money. But rather than closing half of them down, the government insists that all must be kept on standby for times when alternative energy generation is impossible, such as at night and on windless days.

The main problem seems to lie in the fact that the alternative energy generation schemes grew far too quickly, due to a massive injection of subsidy and other investment capital. Even though solar projects generated a maximum of 4% of Spain’s energy needs last summer, they could cut costs fast – about 70% since 2004 alone. The subsidy funding was too generous.

It attracted a huge amount of investment and a sudden surge in the installation of generating capacity in 2008, before a tariff cut was introduced in 2009.

The net result was that by 2010 Spain had 10 times more, solar energy generating capacity than it was planned for, and a much larger bill than ever thought possible.

Challenging the tariff cuts in court will not provide a speedy solution, and by the time the issues have been resolved many smaller solar producers will have been forced out of business, said Asif’s president Javier Anta. He continued by adding that investors are losing faith in the government and consequently, refraining from new investment.

The fact that the government has decided to retroactively cut subsidies, which had been promised to extant generating projects, will scare off new investors. This is the one area that all generators – traditional or alternative – agree upon.

Changing Standards

Using experience gained in 70 years of business, a Spanish engineering firm – Abengoa – is continuing development of solar energy projects. It is working on a new method of solar energy generation using towers of pipes rather than more traditional pipe layouts. Its solar power generating plant employs 23,000 workers, and has a turnover exceeding €3bn (£2.6bn).

The sustainability of potential projects is carefully audited and any that does not measure up to severe standards are rejected. Even though bio-fuels are a hot potato due to their potential for depriving poor people in the developing world of food sources, Abengoa stands strongly behind them.

Abengoa removed seeds and fruit from plant material before processing into bio-fuel. Carlos Bousoño, Abengoa’s director of corporate social responsibility, affirmed that only stalks and waste material were fermented into bio-fuels, and the soya, corn and other food types were saved for nutritional purposes.

Source: Guradian

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Here is the analysis done by a reporter who won an award for making solar energy reports. This analysis reveals the important steps taken by the green industry.

Special: Silicon PV Panels with back contact

It’s only the energy department which emphasizes on the research of solar technology instead of just making breaking news. Similar news was disclosed in September about the installation of solar panel of 205 KW, on DOE’s headquarter roof in Washington DC. This panel was made by Sun Power Corporation, which is based in Silicon Valley.

Mr. Samuel Bodman who is the secretary at the energy department declared this choice as very practical. He said that this is practical because in the beginning of the year the photovoltaic cells of silicon were found to have an effectiveness of around 23.4 percent. In this process, the SunPower uses a design known as back-contact, according to which the electricity is harnessed at the back side of PV cells. Whereas it leaves the front side of cell open to sun. Though these types of designs are very effective, it is only in the recent years that the cost has been going down.

This design is considered symbolic as it reveals how a solar technology should be introduced to the market. First of all, the PV design with a back panel was made in early 1980 at Stanford University, and then later in 1985; SunPower was established. Mr. Larry Kazmersi who is the Director of the National Center for Photovoltaic says that research progress shouldn’t take 30 years. He said that the time for bringing the product from the lab to the consumer should be reduced. Mr. Larry is the director at NREL; national renewable energy laboratory.

The study found that PV cells are 50 percent more efficient in comparison to the typical crystalline silicon cells. A future project is also in line, which includes a 250 MW solar plant in California. This is the biggest PV installation which is made on the temporary basis.

Micro inverters

There is a problem which people have to face when they install PV panels. This is a problem regarding electrical engineering. The power generated by the solar panels is direct current, whereas our electrical appliances of daily use need AC (that means alternating current). Some systems are developed, which can change DC into AC, but due to these systems certain amount of power is lost. Moreover, it is also expensive for home appliances.

So to eliminate this problem a new system is developed called micro inverters. This is a small device which is attached to each solar panel directly. This device makes every panel capable of producing AC other than DC. The function of each panel can be inspected by attaching a wireless system with the panel. This combination of the micro inverter and monitoring device will be able to encourage the development of big grids of solar power. Mr. Patrick Chapman from Smart Spark energy says that companies are keen on bringing this new technology to the market.

The company along with other 12 companies got a grant of $24 million from DOE in August. This grant is issued for the development grids for solar energy. These grids if successful will generate enough power, so that solar panels for home electrical needs can be made really effective. Though this was neglected in the past but now companies are considering it. The first micro inverter was introduced in the market in June, 2009, by Enphase Energy. And it earned a capital of $15 million in September, which is enough to meet the increased demands.

Concentrating PV panels

Almost all the big companies regarding solar power do not disclose the exact cost of technology they are producing. In a way you can say that it’s always more costly as compared to burning coal. But this trend was broken by Sunrgi in April, 2009, who made a prediction that their solar panels will generate electricity at a cost of only $0.05 per KW per hour, which is extremely cheap. Their panels are highly concentrated.

Mr. Robert Block who is the maker of this company said that we developed XCPV in slightly more than a year He also said that we are hopeful that in 12 to 15 months Sunrgi system will serve on grid power applications as well as off grid power applications.

This system involves using lenses to catch sunlight by using 1600 factors. This is similar to fry an ant with magnifying glass by a kid. This gives synergy an opportunity to use only a few expensive semiconductors, which make solar cells. This saves a lot of money but generates a fundamental amount of power. A record of producing 40.8 percent by prototype cell was seen at NREL. This was based on an illumination with concentrated light same as what would be produced by 326 suns.

Some other companies are also included in the race of making concentrating PV successful commercially. It’s been found that another company which is from Mexico named as Emcore has broken all the records. According to this record, the solar cells will give an efficiency of 45 percent after combining with concentrating mirrors and lenses. In this device, the solar cells used are of inverted metamorphic multi junction type.

Similarly, another company as Solaria has designed the device which increases sunlight with the minimum use of silicon.

Thin Film: GIGS Panels

The growth of solar power used to be slow due to the high cost of silicon. Besides due to a continuous shortage in solar power, this caused an increase in price of silicon. Moreover, as the world is facing economic crises, so the improvement was slow. Similarly other conductors which can be used in PV cells instead of silicon are expensive. However, thin films of these conductors are used, which involves less material to make cells.

In the technology of thin film the main leader is First Solar, which is a company from Arizona. It makes PV cells by using cadmium telluride. This company was able to produce one giga-watt of solar modules in 2009. However, the conversion efficiency was only 10 percent, besides cadmium was also considered a complication during the process of making panels.

Kazmerski from NREL also suggested that panels of thin films of CIGS i.e. cadmium indium gallium selenide should be made. He said that this device is highly attractive. NREL made a record by making CIGS cell with an efficiency of 19.9 percent, which is 2 times more than the efficiency of First Solar’s cells. And it is also equal to the silicon panels’ efficiency.

A scientist from NREL said that it’s a good step ahead, as we are touching the same goal as expected by most of the companies dealing in thin film. These companies expected that the performance of film will be same as that of silicon.

As a result of this development, several new and fresh companies are investing on CIGS technology. These companies include, Nan solar, which is San Jose based, Miasola from Santa Clara and Hellio volt from Austin Emergence. There are many beginners. Kazmersi says that though everybody cannot be successful but, even if anyone is successful it will bring great rewards.

Solar thermal storage

Lots of questions arise in the mind of people while discussing solar power. One such question is that what will happen if the sun changes its position and goes down. As the cost of the batteries is very high with a limited storage ability, so answering this question is difficult.

A construction on a plant called Andasol 1, which is situated on Guadix plateau in a Spanish province, called Grenda is having a thermal storage capacity. In the beginning, this will be the first solar power plant which will have a thermal storage capacity. This battery can work for 7.5 hours when the sun changes its position by going down or by going behind the clouds.

Mr. Fred who is a former official from DOE said that this news has attracted people from around the world. This aspect also shows the change of thought towards solar power. As now instead of inducing energy in grids the utilities can absorb and save energy when the sun is shining. This will drastically reduce the cost of electricity.

Andasol1 plant was constructed by a German based company called Solar Millennium AG. This will combine with Andasol2 in 2009 and then both the plants will work together to supply energy power to half a million people. These plants do not depend on photovoltaic panels but depends on concentrating solar thermal technology. A series of mirrors will be displayed with a liquid which will redirect the sunlight to a tower heating up a liquid to 750 F. this will produce boiling water, which will spin a steam turbine. Storage of power depends on just a big thermos which can store the hot liquid until the steam is required.

Other similar plants have been constructed in the U.S. Like the Gila Bend Arizona plant with a storage capacity of 280 MW. The plant is expected to be completed this year (2011).

Solar technology is giving us good hope; for the future of renewable energy.

Source: Popular Mechanics.

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But now, a new first large scale solar power plant is being constructed in Nevada which claims to produce and store energy for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. This plant has been supplied with a loan guarantee of $737 million dollars by the Obama administration. Usually solar power plants absorb heat energy from the sun and use this energy to boil water and turn it into steam. This steam then runs the turbines and generates electricity. But this new solar reserve plant stores heat energy in molten salt which is circulated through the boiler.

In other words, the solar plant will be able to generate electricity even during the night when this advance technology is deployed.

The electricity generation capacity of this solar plant is 110 MW. It basically works when 17,500 heliostats concentrate the solar light on to a collector which is located at the top of a tower of a height of 640-feet and operates at a phenomenal temperature of up to 1050 degrees Fahrenheit.

It is hoped that this latest large scale power plant will prove beneficial as well as economic for the world of renewable energy.

Source: Clean Technica

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There is an additional 4.5 megawatt of renewable energy to the grid of 2010 by the ConEd customers in New York City and Wetchester Country, a wealthy northern suburb of Manhattan. The utility is collaborating with the City University of New York (CUNY) on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America City program. This was instigated in 2007 to advance the adoption of solar technologies. Currently, CondED’s systems generate 8.5 megawatts of photovoltaic-power.

Robert Schimmenti said, “We reached out to our customers and explained the economic and environmental benefits of using sun power in their homes and businesses”. He also mentioned that they shortened their “approval process for residential systems – those under 25 kilowatts – and created a website where customers can submit their applications.”

In 2009, the utility launched a pilot program to test new smart grid communications technologies in the borough of Queens. It has been investing in the modernization of energy infrastructure over the past years.

ConEd was granted a total US $ 181 million, through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. These funds were used to set out intelligent grid systems throughout ConEd’s service area. The money also used to provide concurrent analysis on how to support electric vehicles, grid conditions in the control rooms and how to increase the level of customer-generated renewable energy.

ConEd is now maintained by a web site so that customers who are interested in installing solar panels can have an access. They are also working to develop the coordination for approvals across government agencies. On the other hand, CUNY will chart the progress of the Solar America City plan on a public website later this year, according to Tria Case, the university director of sustainability.

Source: Smart Planet

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In 2010, at Seoul International Design Competition, co-hosted by Designboom, Hot Liner got the Golden Haechi Award because of its original concept, which is based on a unique way of building, designed for those people who have no access to reliable electricity.

The Hot line consists in a flexible solar panel, rigid, a solar cell holder, a battery, a heat coil and a magnetic strip at each end, which can connect one to the other.

It can take any shape, depending on the size of the cooking pots. For a small cooking pot, it is necessary only a liner in a ring shape and for larger ones, 2 liners fit together. The Hot Liner is becoming an off-grid, dual burner stovetop.

When Hot Liner must be recharged, it can be put flat on the ground or hung in a tree to capture the solar energy. This is really a revolutionary type of technology.

Source: Earth Techling and IB Times

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A new solar plant will be built at the Sicilian site where the world’s first concentrating solar power plant was constructed. It has a capacity of 9 MW, meaning that the plant will be able to produce 14 million kilowatt hours per year.

The New Enel Green Power photovoltaic power plant is being built at Adrano, which is in the province of Catania. The plant started construction on the 27th of January 2011. The plant will be built on the same site where Enel built the world’s first solar power plant in 1981.

This New Enel Green Power Solar plant will have an installed potential to produce 9 MW. This will produce around 14 million Kilowatt hour per annum. In other words, it would supply electricity to approximately 5,000 households. Besides, it would reduce Carbon dioxide emission by nearly 10,000 tonnes per annum.

The Region of Sicily approved the Adrano plant, which is going to be constructed on the same spot where Eurelios was built in 1981. It was at that time, the world’s first solar power plant. It was the only plant generating electricity from the sun, at that time. The reason why Adrano was selected in 1981 was that it was considered as the sunniest area in Europe. The concentrating solar power tower plant had mirror arrays spread over 7,800 square meters – which secured the production of 1 MW.

Eurelios (first solar power plant) will be decommissioned as the new plant is being constructed. The main components of the previous solar power plant will be delivered to MUSIL -The Museum of Industry and Work in Brescia.

Source: ENEL Green Power

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Folks might wonder why Solar Energy isn’t harnessed to that extent. The ultimate answer lies in the cost of capturing and converting solar energy into electricity.

During the past 10 years, the cost of solar energy has been dwindling. This has eventually triggered a rising popularity for the source of energy. Ten years ago, not more than 25,000 solar cells were imported to North America per year. This number had increased by a multiple of 20 in 2008, as above 500,000 solar were being shipped. Yet, for the same year, solar energy did not really represent a large source of energy. It accounted only for a ‘tenth of a percentage of United States energy supply’.

European countries like Germany have a large solar energy industry as the government has introduced broader solar programs. However, solar energy represents not more than 1.1 percent of the country’s energy need.

Most scientists agree to the fact that solar energy will be a critical source of the future. Yet, it is uncertain when solar power will be able to compete on a large scale with other renewables and non-renewable sources of energy.

How to Calculate the Cost of Solar Power?

There are several problems with solar electricity. For instance, if a shopper buys a shirt, he or she can easily estimate the cost as it will be equal to what is paid for the shirt. The buyers do, however, not know the general cost of any other particular shirt. The general cost will depend on a number of determinants such as type, size, make and materials used to produce the shirt.

For solar energy, the cost is calculated in a similar way. The cost of solar energy depends on where it is being installed and what technology is being used. For instance, in Arizona and Phoenix the cost structure is quite different from that of Albany and New York. Moreover, the solar panels used in Seville Spain are different in terms of technology to those used in Leipzig, Germany.

Seth Darling, who is a scientist at U.S department of Energy (DOE), ‘Argonne National Laboratory’ in Illinois says that there are various reasons for these differences, like sunlit geography.

The easiest way to calculate the cost of solar electricity is to use the ‘total system levelized cost’. When energy is calculated in this way, the owner will be able to comprehend how long it will take for the solar panels to pay for itself – (a return on investment ratio).

The rather shocking news is that there is no general way of calculating the levelized cost. This is why people are confused about the real the cost of installing solar photovoltaics.

Levelized cost calculation provides an overview of the cost of solar energy systems. The actual problem is that everyone gives a different number, and it is hard to confirm, which levelized cost structure is right.

According to U.S DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) the cost of installing one megawatt hour of photovoltaic electricity will cost nearly $396. This represents one of the most costly means of generating electricity. The levelized cost for wind energy is according to EIA half of that number while for typical coal energy the cost would be less than four times of that price.

Moreover, information on cost was derived from an analysis that focused on large-scale solar energy generation for utility companies. The cost of a personal solar installation system will be even higher. To give a true picture, it will take 20 years for a homeowner to earn back 76 to 109 percent of the cost of the solar energy system. The earning will be in terms of lower electricity bills as solar energy is practically free. This was reported in a 2009 study on financing solar Installation in the residential sector. The report was released by the ‘National Renewable Energy Laboratory’ of US’s DOE.

Ed, Regan, who is the assistant general manager of strategic planning at Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) in Gainesville, Florida, says that the slow rate of return does hardly motivate banks to give loans. Currently, GRU is supporting Gainesville residents to benefit from the feed-in tariff. It is a system where the utility company will engage in a 20-year contract to purchase energy generated from the sun. This does therefore, ascertain homeowners that they will make a profit from installing solar energy.

The High Cost of Solar Energy Lies In the Cost of Materials

In fact, making energy from something that isn’t moving is much harder than simply spinning a turbine. The turbine technology is used for natural gas, coal, nuclear, hydropower and wind farms.

Tom Mayer, who is a professor of chemistry at the ‘University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’ says that wind power technology has remained the same for over a thousand years. The technology isn’t being invented. Scientists are merely enhancing the efficiency of the technology. In the recent years, wind turbine-manufacturers have been able to significantly reduce the cost of producing wind turbines by making some simple modifications.

This isn’t the case for solar energy. Solar cells are constructed by using semiconductor materials known as silicon, which is also the main material used for computers. Producing solar cells are very expensive, as a significant amount of energy is required to refine silicon. The computer industry has made great progress in making silicon devices cheaper but unfortunately, this progress does not apply to the emerging solar industry.

Huge Hillhouse, who is a professor of chemical engineering at the ‘University of Washington’, says that comparing silicon used for computers to that in solar cells are like contrasting oranges to apples. In the semiconducting industry for computers, silicon patterns can only be seen through the use of an electron microscope. The progress occurring in the industry is mainly on how to reduce the cost of generating these silicon structures. On the other hand, silicon used for solar energy does not have any complex structures. The semiconductors have only some layers. So the cost is more linked to the volume of materials required and not to the complexity of using silicon.

The most promising way to decrease the cost of solar cells is through the use of new materials like cadmium telluride. With cadmium telluride, thin-film solar cells can be made at a cheaper price than conventional silicon panels.

However, experts say that ‘soft cost’ is still left to consider. The cost of installing solar cells is another cost associated to photovoltaic panels. According to Rayne Raffaelle, who is the director of the ‘National Center for Photovoltaics’ at National Renewable Energy Laboratory, claims that solar arrays themselves represent merely half of the cost of installing a solar system.

There are augmenting effort to decrease both soft and hard cost associated in installing solar systems. Unfortunately, not every laboratory breakthrough can be translated into mass production. It also takes a long time before it is certain that innovative technology works.

Finding the Competitiveness for Solar Energy

Solar energy is already expensive. However, in some parts of Hawaii the cost has reached ‘grid parity’. This means that solar energy can be sold at the average electric rate. The reason why this is possible is because in Hawaii energy is already expensive. Solar energy is an ideal source of energy, in the region, as there is also lots of sunshine.

Moreover, in regions where the electricity cost is low. There is still a possibility to integrate solar energy. The cost of electricity during peak hours is higher. Interestingly, peak hours of electricity and sunshine do coincide. So, if solar energy was used to compensate for increasing energy demand, the saving could be extensive.

In the rest of United States, the cost of electricity is relatively cheap. This is so because side-costs of generating electricity from burning fuels are not included in the energy bill. This means that health care cost, environmental damage, greenhouse gas and other expenses are ignored.

So Consumers Are Waiting for the Right Time

Consumers are currently waiting until it makes sense to install solar panels on the rooftop of their house.

The problem with calculating the levelized cost is its uncertainty. The long-term result might be different due to changes in technology. Additionally, new technology such as cadmium telluride thin film panels might be more effective and reduce the levelized costs in the near future.

However, increasing use of cadmium telluride in the production of solar panels could also lead to the depletion of tellurium. This would once again cause a rise in costs of solar panels.

The increasing price of natural gas and coal is maybe the most promising promoter of renewable energy. According to National Renewable Energy Laboratory, solar energy should match national grid parity before 2017. This will be met irrespective whether the government will provide subsidies or not. Incremental progress of solar technology will slowly drag price down the current rate.

Seth Darling at Argonne, claims that United States are not likely going to see a major expansion in solar energy before 2025.

Source: National Geographic

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