Hello, does anyone know the status of this?? This is looks very interesting:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/10/02/solar.cells.reut/

Thanks,
Adiel

And next year they have a 200mph Carburetor . Seriously though, and I'm a newbie, but I'm sure the long timers here have heard this many times. I checked their web-site and there is nothing more then that stale old press release . Sad.

I've only be into PV for about 4 years now , and in this time I have seen close to 20 "break thru" press releases

If you dig deep enough , you will probably find its PR to help with a stock sale or other financing ... Its about someone trying to make(scam) a buck , not about real technology breakthru's

There is nothing I am awhere of that is even within the next decade will displace Silicon. ... Si (silicon) is the now and future , nothing comes close to its durability and as the volumes increase , the manufacturing efficiencys will improve help moderate the costs.

I don't forsee PV getting cheaper , I see cheap energy going away as the 7 billion of us depletes the fixed resources of oil and gas. For the US , we have coal , which will keep us from total energy collapse , but the days of cheap energy are over , you just don't know it yet.

Haven't you noticed all the good things are always hidden? Why is it that solar energy has to be so expensive? I believe it does not have to be so expensive. I believe there is a very big "control" from the big guys in this field just like in any other field. I believe there is a cheaper way to make a solar panel absorb the solar energy. I believe the problem is greed. Look at any other field. Did you know that there is enough food in the world to feed everyone? But yet many people remain hungry because of greed...yes tons of food are destroyed to keep the market value stable! Did you know that hydrogen powered cars would be better for the environment but yet they continue to manufacture gas powered cars? The good thing is that some of us here continue to fight this problem. Just by the fact that you are using solar panels, you are contributing to a cleaner environment and making an environment less dependent on big companies that just want to take your money and not teach or show you anything about technologies like solar power.

Adiel

Of course the big guys want to continue to be big guys. And they'll fight anything that even smells of a threat to their position on top. But that doesn't make silicon any cheaper. The biggest problem facing solar energy adoption is the cost shifting that favors the established market. If oil prices included the military costs required to maintain the availability of oil, then oil products would be much more expensive. And then solar would be more attractive even at current prices.

Since oil is going away, and solar will be around a bit longer, solar will win in the long run. The only question is the amount of travail that we go through for the conversion. Atomic energy will be used until we run out of backyards to put it in. Since nobody wants atomic anywhere near them, it appears to be self limiting. In Germany it's so bad that they're soaking up the world market in solar panels, just to get off the atomic bandwagon.

Hydrogen (not nitrogen...) is attractive because it burns cleanly. But it should be thought of as an energy storage facility only. The energy in hydrogen has to come from somewhere, and right now that seems to be from fossil fuels. I'm all for hydrogen fuels, but for it to really be clean, it has to be generated from solar power. Otherwise it's just another case of shifting the pollution from the end consumer off to the conversion plant.

Well, I probably said more than Henry is comfortable with already. Let's get back to MPPT algorithms and solar panel prices...

hydrogen MIGHT be cheaper, but check who controls the strategic metals for hte catalysts, platinum and paladium.
(and you convert oil to H2)
(hint hint, who owns controls Stillwater company, they cover 7 time zones)

From what i understand the reason solar panels cost so much is a shortage of high grade silicon. Much is used in computers and other countries are sucking it up fast as they can for their own capitalistic greedy purposes. Truth? I don't know I,m married and not allowed to think without permission.


brad

high grade silicon? for what why are they always using this excuse make it out of low grade for a dollar a watt you will have to buy more panels but cheaper in the long run.
so you 50 watt panel is the size of a 100 watt panel but you only paid 50 for cells glass & frame.
they say it is labor intensive, so is a car but robots that make the car dont care how intensive it is that is why the assembly line is full of robots working 24 7.
its a big lie someday some company will have the guts to take on the goverment that tells them what price free energy shoud be & will become the biggest & cheapest solar panel producer
energy has a price if solar was the cheapest the people who are left on the grid would have to pay for all the people who left the grid so there bills would be 600 a month to make up for the loss in income & taxes line fees franchise fess ....

Since this thread is about the latest and greatest, I thought I'd point you guys to a company in my backyard that is in the stages of ramping up their print-roll silicon technology in manufacturing quantities :

http://www.nanosolar.com

Like Gup, I'm tired of hearing or reading about the solar breakthroughs hitting the press every month. At least these guys have a for-real company addressing the cost and availability issues on their solar product. But, and there's always a but, the early product they produce won't apply sufficient down-pressure on the pricing of panels worldwide, so don't get your expectations high on a low priced panel right off the bat (besides, companies like this need to recoup their investment costs and then some for their investors).

Since a number of big execs from other solar behemoths have joined this startup, Ill say watch out for them in the near future. You can even sign up to be one of their product distributor/installers.

IT will be the same story as evergreen panels they found a new cheaper way to make cells great for them not for the people buying them, they are the same price as shell or bp.
Even if they could make them for 50 cents a watt you are still going to pay the same price as any other panel of the same size