First of two parts
Solar industry’s future lies in lightweight technology.
Scientists are developing flexible, thin-films that will be more resilient and have wider uses than current solar technology.
John Fialka, submitted the following report online November 30 for Scientific American (E&E News).
“Now that solar energy is competitive with fossil fuels for making low-cost electricity, has it peaked in the United States?
“Nope. We’re probably still looking at only the beginning.
“The options for developing new solar businesses are substantial, according to a road map for technology-prone U.S. companies released by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
“This is despite the fact that China now dominates solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing and may continue its global leadership of the industry for some time.
“The new study of rapidly evolving prospects for solar energy suggests there are possibilities for niche markets reaching volumes of $1 Billion over the next decade. There are a variety of new uses for solar power as it grows still cheaper and more widespread.
“The study: ‘Increasing markets and decreasing package weight for high-specific-power photovoltaics’, was written by solar experts from NREL, a unit of the Department of Energy, and the Colorado School of Mines. It suggests there are lucrative reasons for companies to press ahead with innovative options for solar.
“Or, as Matthew Reese, an NREL senior scientist and lead author of the paper, explained, solar electricity has reached grid parity. That means it can compete with coal and natural gas, formerly the Nation’s two most economical sources of electricity.
“‘One of the things that gets thrown around in the solar community,’ he noted in an interview, ‘is that people didn’t stop making cars when they reached horse parity.’
“Solar power was invented in the United States in 1954, when scientists from Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., demonstrated a new invention. It was a panel made of silicon that produced enough electricity under the stimulation of the light of a small sun lamp to turn a toy Ferris wheel (Climatewire, December 16, 2016).
“In recent years, China has used subsidies and innovations on silicon-based PV to create a scale that will make it ‘remarkably hard’ for competitors to match, Reese explained. But there are new thin-film technologies for making solar electricity, he noted, that are just beginning their growth curves. They hold the potential for disrupting old markets and creating new ones.
“Silicon has historically enjoyed lots of subsidies compared with thin-film PV, Reese said, pointing out that the original development of silicon PV was financed by billions of dollars from the semiconductor industry, whose main objective was making the modern computer. Solar power was a secondary challenge, but it has eventually matured to the point where panels can be ensured to produce 30 years of reliable electricity.
“The U.S. Office of Naval Research is sponsoring NREL’s newest research into other compounds that can be made into thin films capable of generating electricity from light. Lighter and more flexible than silicon, they include cadmium telluride, copper indium gallium selenium, and a family of related rocks called perovskite (Climatewire, April 24, 2017).
“The challenge from the Navy was ‘can you make really lightweight solar, the lightest weight possible,’ and find the material whose use could be scaled up at the lowest cost, recalled Reese.
“Basically, the Navy and other U.S. military units are looking to solar-generated electricity as a way to eliminate batteries, and reduce casualties.”
Continued next week