Dollar-a-Watt Solar
This week, First Solar, Inc announced tests for thin-film photovoltaic panels that dropped the cost per watt generated below $1 per watt. When First Solar began operation in 2004, they were manufacturing panels at $3 per watt.
First Solar, of Tempe, Arizona, is using cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology and needs to get the costs below 65 cents if the installed costs make it beneficial to be installed commercially. Solar panels generally cost $4.81 per watt in commercial quantities. (The lowest thin film module price commercially available is $3.57 per watt in a 60 watt module.)
Unfortunately, a Popular Mechanics review suggests this technology can’t scale up fast enough or easily enough to make much of an impact on national energy needs. CdTe raw materials are difficult to extract and require a great amount of energy to convert into a usable crystalline form.
Cyrus Wadia, a researcher with Univerity of California – Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, warns that
“Even if the solar cell market were to grow at 56 percent a year for the next 10 years—slightly higher than the rapid growth of the past year — photovoltaics would still only account for about 2.5 percent of global electricity”
Wadia admits First Solar is capable of producing small quantities of solar cells, “But as soon as they have to start rolling out terawatts, that’s where I believe they will reach some limitations.”
And “even if the solar cell market were to grow at 56 percent a year for the next 10 years—slightly higher than the rapid growth of the past year—photovoltaics would still only account for about 2.5 percent of global electricity.”
sources:
popular mechanics
First Solar Press Release
Solarbuzz Module Prices, Feb 09