Fred, I was hoping we might be able to extrapolate how large a
production plant it would take to produce enough solar panels to
furnish 30 million sq feet per year. The 300 sq/ft average per
average house was picked up a couple three years ago. That may indeed be a low figure. I will be sure to ask Guha that question at the shareholders meeting, providing he is present. Otherwise, I will call
him upon my return.
I had another thought I had been reflecting upon regarding our joint venture arrangement with Tyler Lowrey. We have all heard of the tremendous cost in building a fab plant to build chips that could easily cost a couple of billion dollars or so. We have also seen a much lower figure of $200-300 million for a simpler method and technology. As a result we could conceivably be drawing erroneous conclusions from that information.
Way back when, ECD stated that our new memory could be produced on a continuous roll vs. on a six or eight inch wafer. It would cost
considerably less to produce under this new arrangement. Furthermore, who is to say we could not job that process out?
NEMC happens to be the largest mfg'r of wafers for the chip mfg'g industry with sales in excess of four billion dollars and coincidentally happens to be right here in St. Charles, Mo., where I live, for what that's worth.
Now, if indeed this roll mfg'g process does work, it would certainly speed up the process and reduce costs significantly.
Also coincidentally, as you well know, ECD is working on a method to produce a superior DVD disk using a rolling-mill type of method at considerably lower cost then the present plastic injection molded process that currently presses each DVD out one disk at a time. Might ECD be on to something, providing this new technology works?
There is certainly some food for thought here.
Oh well, it remains to be seen. Perhaps we will get some much needed answers to these and other questions this Thursday.
Regards. |
