(Here's a more specific PV post stemming from my previous comments on Grid Parity.)
"Jimmy Carter makes the first presidential push for solar renewables in the 70s." "If the small state Rhode Island were covered in PV panels the U.S. would be set for electricity." "The thermal value of energy hitting the Earth's surface at any moment is many thousands of times greater than demanded by its inhabitants." Among other Utopian claims, we've all heard about the Sun's potential to save us from the energy abyss. It's a endlessly hot topic about a technology that has modernized and as such, legitimized itself in the past 10 years. Because of these developments, unbridled enthusiasm reigns at many PV startups and has fueled a chaotic landscape of serious players. But I need a less kabuki-esque presentation of where this technology really stands.
It may be the case that PV energy may finally be coming of age. Much has happened in the past 10 years and even 2011 alone. The historical troubles with the 60 year-old technology have slowly been tackled successfully and the trickiest are now being settled as well (i.e. low conversion efficiency, support material industries, etc.). Most advancement has come from two things; the ramped-up production of traditional Silicon Wafer production now decoupled, scaled-up, and more responsive beyond its previous paternal semiconductor industry and the creation of cheap Thin-Film conducting inks and substrates, which can be printed at 100ft/min. The former reason is a great example of the power of scale to reduce cost. A PV Moore's Law has evened been discussed because of consistent 50% boost in production every 18 months as cost are halved. The latter is a testament to a venture marketplace that truly values new tech and an engineering-focused business model that continually tweaks better manufacturing processes and rising conversion efficiency from Thin-Films. Both trends address the paramount reason PV hasn't been able to achieve that idealistic idea of using the sun for electricity: cost. Aside from the forward-looking CEO, the entire industry has long been considered a niche sector and still is by many because of this reason. But now even big-time utility firms are crafting their PV strategies.
Utility CEOs produce awesome amounts of megawatts in central locations and distribute it outwards to customers, which is the Alternating Current hallmark of Thomas Edison that allowed him to beat Nicola Tesla's Direct Current. It's been the only way to deliver electricity for over 130 years. However, this notion is challenged by the sun's endless ability to electrify every inch of earth, thus allowing each consumer to effectively detach themselves from big utilities, presuming a viably technology is available to them. Distributed generation via PV and other home remedies are increasingly on the lips of analysts weighing the costs of either building new power plants or instating consumer incentives for PV. Viable, affordable, and accessible consumer PV is on its way and as I've said before could be in $5,000 DIY kits at stores within years. Growth of distributed generation is the primary reason a data-driven electricity market is in dire need and the tangent Smart Grid industry is so abuzz. Too long a passive, reaction-less marketplace, technologies like PV coupled with real-time info-metric communications could really reshape how small and big consumers of an old-school commodity bring their relationship into a new century. It's extremely exciting to me. So much new, great work to be done in a old industry.
A Final Dash of Salt…
Silicon PV is efficient, but mostly cost prohibitive, currently. Prices are incrementally lowering towards grid parity, which is assisted by the overall rise in level of cost for the other typical fossil fuels. Thin-Film or CIGS (copper, indium, gallium, selenium) are cheap to make, but much less efficient. Both address overall cost and are close to making the technology economically practical distributed and centralized generation alternative. Further market and government assistance is needed to bring PV to the masses at the level as it's often spoken about. Eventually everyone should have access to the original fossil fuel!
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