GE brings solar panels to life!

Electronics giant General Electric (GE) announced last week that it is getting into the thin-film solar panels industry.  In a new partnership with PrimeStar Solar, GE will start R&D of cadmium telluride solar cells, with an eye toward marketing its own cad tel solar modules next year.

In the so-called “cad tel solar” market, only First Solar has managed to be a significant mass producer of the cells.

Now, GE is poised to step into the lucrative market!

General Electric’s move is long in the making.  In 2007, GE invested in PrimeStar, a cad tel start-up, and the  became the majority shareholder in 2008.

Finally, after nearly 2 years, GE has finally announced that it will work with PrimeStar to develop cad tel solar panels. GE plans to sell the panels for utility-scale solar plants.

Danielle Merfeld, the leader of GE’s solar research and developmen, stated that the company is looking to differentiate itself with respect to solar technical capability.  Cad tel could be the least expensive type of solar panels.  Just last year, First Solar broke the $1/watt barrier in thin film solar manufacturing.  GE could threaten to “de-throne” the company with respect to its leadership position in solar R&D.

With the resources and expertise of GE, the race to continually lower the cost of thin film panels is on.  Of course, the lower the cost, the less expensive solar electricity rates would be for end-user customers who get power from the utilities that are served by solar power plants.

Bring on the competition, I say!

Over 1 GW of solar panels were sold by First Solar in 2009

A manufacturing milestone in the solar industry was reached last week!  The publicly-held U.S. company, First Solar Inc., announced that it manufactured and shipped more than 1 gigawatts (GW) of its PV solar modules in 2009.  Its the first solar manufacturing company to reach this production volume in a single year.

In a short two years, the company achieved a significant leap in production from approximately 75 megawatts (MW) in 2007, to its 1 GW milestone this year.  To put this in perspective, 1 gigawatt is the equivalent of 1000 megawatts.

First Solar is the largest manufacturer of thin-film solar cells in the world, and the second largest manufacturer of photovoltaic solar modules – the familiar solar panels you’ll see on homes and buildings.

First Solar states that its solar modules are produced at $0.98/watt, which broke another barrier in February this year (dropping below $1 per watt).  According to Wikipedia, the company must continue to reduce price per watt by 6.5% per year and it plans to be competitive on an unsubsidized basis with retail electricity next year.

Canada Solar Power is looking up!

Here’s three words you might not expect to see together:  Canada Solar Power.  After all, the northernmost North American Country is not exactly known for sunny weather!

Yet, surprisingly, there is plenty of good news on the solar front coming from Canada recently.  In the northern reaches of this northern country, solar power is heating up!  Among other things, First Solar and the Canadian pipeline company Enbridge have recently announced that they will be working together to quadruple the size of a solar farm in Ontario.

Some of the details were reported last week on thestar.com:

Enbridge Inc. has decided to quadruple its investment in Ontario’s solar-power market, announcing Tuesday it is acquiring another six solar farms in Sarnia from California’s First Solar Inc. The Calgary-based oil pipeline giant said it will pay an additional $300 million to add 60 megawatts of solar capacity to the 20 megawatts it purchased in October for $100 million. The solar projects fetch 42 cents per kilowatt-hour over 20 years for the electricity they produce under Ontario’s older Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP).

Lest you wonder about solar power in northern latitudes, we should all take a page from Germany’s book (the world’s leading solar market).  That country has shown that its not as important to have optimal solar patterns, as it is for the economics of a project to be well thought-out.

The First Solar-Enbridge venture is not the only newsworthy story to report for Canada solar power.  SkyPower and SunEdison also recently paired up to create the third largest solar farm in North America, and the largest PV farm in Canada:

All of this just goes to show that you cannot judge the renewable energy market based on its “cover.”  In other words, don’t count out a region just because of a preconception regarding sunny days (or windy ones, etc.).

Because Ontario has a European-styled solar incentive structure, I will bet that we’ll see much more solar energy from the northern regions of Canada in the months and years ahead!

Industry milestone reached for solar energy

This week, a solar industry milestone was reached by a company based in Tempe, Arizona.  Long criticized for being too expensive as a renewable energy option for many people, solar energy now can be generated below the $1 per watt level, says First Solar.

Take that, “clean coal” and nuclear proponents!  We don’t need your dirty, dangerous options for energy.

I’ve always said that solar power has a bright future.  And it just got a whole lot sunnier.

According to a press release:

“First Solar, which has produced modules for solar installations in several countries in Europe, said it had brought costs down to $1 from $3 over the past four years through economies of scale by increasing its production capacity by 50 times, and by passing on those savings to consumers.”

The dramatically lowered cost for solar energy was also achieved with the use of feed-in tariffs.  Solar operators like First Solar are allowed a higher cost per watt produced for a grid with solar energy than utilities that use coal or other fossil fuels.  This helps off-set the higher cost of energy production for renewable sources.

What do you get when you add improved technology with feed-in tariffs, plus government incentives/tax credits?  A very compelling case to install solar panels on your home or business!

Even more exciting are projections that the solar industry will not even need subsidies by 2012.  With government support for renewable energy now, solar power should be able to match peak-hour pricing by coal and natural gas in just a few short years.  Then, the programs can be phased out.

Can you imagine solar power at 65-75 cents per watt?  Its on the horizon!