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The good thing about solar is that it leverages off the semiconductor industry, whereas other renewables do not. For example, in the case of smartphones, before
by xt00 10y ago
The good thing about solar is that it leverages off the semiconductor industry, whereas other renewables do not. For example, in the case of smartphones, before they existed accelerometers and GPS IC's were crazy expensive, but now they are cheap. Solar probably has years and years to go before it is as cheap as possible. I would not be surprised if solar hits $0.10/watt in 10 years. Basically because as the demand picks up and money is being made, more companies will be saying, "if we can just increase our efficiency by 20% or so, we can lower the price and win huge contracts.." so they will be trying things like multilayers, changing the structure to improve efficiency as the panel heats up, coatings, lenses, etc that can all be done in low cost ways. Definitely would be interesting to compare how much it costs to run/maintain a solar farm vs. a natural gas power plant. Basically you have to deliver the fuel to the plant, maintain all the stuff, pay for the workers to make sure stuff doesn't blow up, etc. Seems like with a solar farm you basically need a guy with a truck and a leaf blower.
- philipkglass 10y agoThe big difference between solar PV and microelectronics is that there's very little miniaturization achievable in PV. More power requires more area; light conversion efficiency increases only slowly over time. The sunlight-to-electricity conversion efficiency of common solar cells has not even doubled since 1980. There's less than a factor of 4 left between the efficiency of panels you can buy for your rooftop today and the maximum efficiency permitted by the laws of nature. That's quite a difference from the past trajectory of microelectronics, where Moore's Law doubled efficiency over and over. That's also the short explanation for why companies with deep experience in microelectronics manufacturing, like Intel, TSMC, or Texas Instruments, did not come to dominate solar PV manufacturing. PV is a very different game. It's about producing huge quantities of doped silicon wafers with little patterning across their surfaces. However, it is true that PV has made enormous strides in reducing manufacturing costs, though aggressive miniaturization was not how it was done. In sunny regions PV now has the lowest O&M costs of any new-build electricity source.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- xt00 10y agointeresting.. would be interesting to listen to your explanation while listening to some of your music mr. glass. :-)
- philipkglass 10y ago:-) Philip K Dick meets Philip Glass: I combined two of my favorite Philips for my nom de plume.
- D_Alex 10y agoAre you in the renewable energy industry in the US? If yes, send me a message on the e-mail in my profile please.
- patrickk 10y ago> Seems like with a solar farm you basically need a guy with a truck and a leaf blower. You don't even need that! Automated, water-free robots can already clean panels, even in dusty desert areas: https://www.revolvesolar.com/5-robots-that-are-revolutionizing-how-we-clean-solar-panels/ https://www.revolvesolar.com/5-robots-that-are-revolutionizi...