Interesting Solar Article in Business Week
Almost all solar panels are made with silicon — and makers can’t buy enough of it
Sometimes it’s possible to be a little too successful. The solar power industry has been on a tear, growing at more than 30% per year for the last six years. It’s poised to reach a surprising milestone within two years, when it will gobble up more silicon for its electricity-generating panels than semiconductor makers use in all their chips and devices. The onetime “‘tree-hugger’ industry is not a niche business anymore,” says Lisa Frantzis, director of renewable energy at Navigant Consulting Inc. You can read the entire article here.
January 30th, 2006 - Posted in Solar Energy News | | 0 Comments
Photovoltaics Cost Issues
Photovoltaics are expensive to produce because of the high cost of semiconducting materials. Cost reductions can be achieved by reducing manufacturing costs. As manufacturing capacity increases, costs of manufacturing decrease. Manufacturers aim to achieve the break-even cost for a photovoltaic system, at which the cost of the electricity it produces is equal to the cost of electricity from an alternative source plus the cost of delivering this electricity to the site. The distance a power line needs to be extended to equal the installation cost of a photovoltaic system is called the break-even distance.
January 27th, 2006 - Posted in Photovoltaics | | 0 Comments
What would you like to know about solar / alternative energy?
If you haven’t noticed I’ve been adding content to the main site of this blog, but I’m not sure what people would like to read about… so I figured I would ask.
If there’s anything that you’ve been wanting to know about solar energy, alternative energy, green technology, ect… all you need to do is leave a comment on this post ( to do that just click on the title of this post and there will be a box titled “Leave a Reply†fill that out and click the “Submit Comment†button.)
Your comment won’t show up right away because I have to moderate all the comments due to people leaving spam replies with links to unsavory sites, but once I get your feedback I will try to cater the content of this site to what you guys and gals would like to read about – sound good?
Thank you in advance to every one who takes the time to help me out.
January 23rd, 2006 - Posted in Solar Energy News | | 1 Comments
India Talks of Solar Power to Support Growth
In New Delhi on Friday President APJ Abdul Kalam said “India should increase the use of renewable energy to achieve energy independence and preserve and protect the environment”.
The country appears to be moving towards energy independence, and not wanting to rely on foreign oil to power the country. With all the trouble surrounding the attainment of oil I would say this is a smart thing to do.
January 21st, 2006 - Posted in Solar Energy News | | 0 Comments
