When Reagan took Carter's solar panels off the WH and allowed his tax credits for alt en to expire, what happened? Alt en basically died here. But elsewhere? My solar panels are from Japan, the mounts from SK , my inverter from Germany. Wire and 4x4 and the disconnects are the only "born in the USA" components. Everybody buys German and Danish windmills, Japanese panels, whatever. We have no manufacturers, no infrastructure (silicon manufacturers; it's in short supply now).
Then you'd better pay attention to this company:
nanosolar.com
nanosolar.com
They just completed a $100 million round of financing (seed capital was provided by Google founders) and they are currently building the largest photo-voltaics manufacturing plant in the world in San Francisco.
And they don't use silicon chips in their manfacturing, and their cost is cheaper (about 1/5 the cost of current silicon based technology):
Nanosolar has a thin-film solar technology that it claims is 10 times as efficient as traditional cells, and a printing-based manufacturing technique that it says will bring the price down to less than a dollar per watt, competitive with natural gas and peak electricity prices.
Thin films use little to no silicon—an advantage since the high-grade silicon needed for PV is scarce. Even without today’s shortage, silicon has been the costliest part of a traditional cell. And light, flexible thin films could tap into lucrative new applications like consumer electronics and clothing.
nanosolar.com
I'm waiting for them to go public. When they do, I think this might be the technology that makes solar cost competitive with other forms of electrical generation.
It won't be an "end-all, be all" solution, but it will provide people the technology to make theirs more energy self-sufficient, as well as providing the means for other kinds of alternative energy (hydrogen generation.. etc)..
We'll see how it all pans out.
Hawk
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