Tech Advances, More Manufacturers to Bring Cheaper Solar Power – Solar Power
Solar power will grow dramatically cheaper in the come future with the advent of improved technology and new manufacturers of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, according to an assessment released today by the Worldwatch Institute and the Prometheus Institute.
Over the next two years, more than one dozen new PV manufacturers are expected to start production in China, Europe, Japan and the U.S., according to the groups’ represent. On top of the newly expanded manufacturing capacity, the solar market will also benefit from technology advances that enable companies to make solar cells from amorphous silicon and other materials that are much less costly than purified silicon, the assessment states.
“Solar energy is the world’s most plentiful energy resource, and the challenge has been tapping it cost-effectively and efficiently,” said Janet Sawin, a senior researcher at Worldwatch and author of the new assessment. “We are now seeing two major trends that will accelerate the growth of PV: the development of advanced technologies, and the emergence of China as a low-cost producer.”
The use of solar power is six times greater today than it was in 2000, and grid-connected solar electricity (as opposed to off-the-grid solar power generation) grew by 50 percent worldwide in 2006. While solar energy still accounts for less than 1 percent of the globe’s grid-based electricity, the market is already booming in countries like Germany and Japan. Spain and the U.S. are expected to be the next hot spots for solar power.
Making solar cells has been historically pricey, as manufacturing has depended upon purified polysilicon, which is also used to make semiconductor chips. But, while past silicon supply shortages kept prices high, they also forced companies to gain more cost-efficient manufacturing methods and to develop alternative technologies like thin-film solar cells, which can be rolled out over a surface like a roll of plastic.
The Worldwatch/Prometheus assessment said last year’s “largest surprise” was the growth of PV manufacturing in China, which in 2006 became the third-largest producer of solar cells in the world. Germany and Japan are first and second.
Chinese solar-cell manufacturers “have raised billions from international IPOs to effect capacity and increase scale with the goal of driving down costs,” said Travis Bradford, president of the Prometheus Institute, a libertarian thinktank. “Four Chinese IPOs are expected to come to market this month alone.”
Worldwatch Institute, “Solar Power Set to Shine Brightly.” URL: (http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5086)
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