POWER PLAY: IBM, Intel and Hewlett-Packard are pouring resources into making technology that will more cheaply and efficiently harvest solar energy.
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Although solar cell technology for converting the sun's power into electricity has improved steadily in recent years, high costs and inefficiencies have kept it from being a serious replacement for fossil fuels. A few high-tech heavyweights—IBM, Intel and Hewlett-Packard (HP)—hope to change this using the same formula of mass production and commoditization that helped them make personal computers mainstream over the past three decades.
IBM last week announced plans to make solar panels covered with a thin film of chemical compounds. The idea is that the film, when applied to different surfaces such as glass or brick, can produce solar energy more efficiently than conventional silicon wafer–based solar cells—which are made of materials similar to those used to fabricate computer chips. (That's right—a company built on chips based on silicon is trying to get the world to move away from using it in solar cells.)
Also last week, Intel spun off a new solar tech company called SpectraWatt, which was born with $50 million in investment capital from Intel, Cogentrix Energy LLC, PCG Clean Energy and Technology Fund and Solon AG.
Meanwhile, HP earlier this month began licensing technology to Xtreme Energetics, Inc., in Livermore, Calif., designed to help that start-up company deliver rooftop solar energy systems that produce twice as much energy as conventional solar panels at half the cost.
The timing of the push is right, according to a June McKinsey and Company report: Although the cost of manufacturing and installing a photovoltaic solar power system has dropped over the past 20 years, the cost of generating electricity from conventional sources has been rising, along with the price of natural gas.
The McKinsey study noted that as competition grows in the market to deliver solar cells, competitors must relentlessly cut costs by improving manufacturing processes, investing in research and development, and moving production to low-cost countries. IBM, Intel and HP are well-positioned to leap these hurdles thanks to decades of fine-tuning manufacturing processes for PCs, computer processors, and other tech equipment, not to mention their multimillion dollar R&D budgets and worldwide facilities in places such as China and India.
This helps these companies improve the performance of their products while cutting costs. "We need [companies such as] IBM making this technology to get this stuff to the marketplace," says Larry Kazmerski, director of the National Center for Photovoltaics at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo.
A typical solar cell has an efficiency of 15 percent—about one sixth of the sunlight striking the cell generates electricity, according to NREL. Silicon wafer–based solar cells, which account for 90 percent of installed solar capacity, are more efficient, converting up to 20 percent of the sun's energy, whereas thin-film cells generally convert only about 10 percent. This gap is expected to close over the next few years, making thin-film cells—which cost half that of silicon-wafer cells—a better bet.
The least expensive solar cells today are made using thin films of cadmium telluride. The typical cadmium telluride cell converts solar energy into electricity with 10 percent efficiency at a cost of about $4 per watt—although NREL claims to have developed a prototype that converts at 16.5 percent efficiency. IBM's CIGS technology—for copper, indium, gallium and selenide—is a thin-film approach that will initially be able to convert at least 15 percent of the solar energy it receives into electricity, says Supratik Guha, a senior manager at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. That compares with 19.9 percent efficiency for NREL's version of CIGS thin-film solar cells.
Photovoltaic solar panels made from crystalline silicon can produce energy for between $2.25 and $3 per watt. CIGS on glass panels can drop that cost to $1.50 per watt, Guha says, but he also acknowledges that solar energy will not be able to compete with fossil fuel–based electricity until it costs less than $1 per watt.
One way IBM is hoping to cut costs is by making its cells through a process that dissolves the semiconductor materials in a solvent to create a solution that is placed on a glass or metal sheet and heated until the materials adhere. Until now, thin-film solar cells have been made in vacuum chambers—the semiconductor materials are placed on the glass or metal and then air is pumped out of the chamber, creating pressure that fuses the materials. But such vacuum chambers are expensive to build and complicated to operate (requiring monitoring of pressure, temperature, current, voltage, time and other factors during the process of making the thin film). Guha is cautiously optimistic that the new process will be an improvement, "Conceptually, this is simple," he says. "But it's still a largely unproven process."
IBM will be partnering with Tokyo Ohka Kogyo Co., Ltd.—a manufacturer of computer chips, LCD televisions and other devices that require surfaces treated with chemicals to develop the cells; he hopes to bring them to market by 2011.
Intel's SpectraWatt will start building a manufacturing facility in Oregon by the end of the year and plans to begin shipping thin-film solar cells made from crystalline silicon to solar panel makers by the middle of 2009. "All of the different solar technologies out there are all driving toward the same goal," says SpectraWatt chief executive Andrew Wilson, "finding a technology that creates a commodity out of solar energy. The customer cares about their cost per kilowatt hour."
Intel is looking at components of solar energy systems outside of the cell itself, says Wilson, who is tight-lipped about the specifics of SpectraWatt's technology. He points out that the solar cell is only about 25 percent of the technology required to make an energy collection and conversion system. "Intel is looking to drive [down] the cost of the overall system," he adds, "not just the solar cell."
HP and researchers at Oregon State University have been developing see-through transistors since 2002 by baking zinc tin oxide—a semiconductor—into glass or plastic . HP originally envisioned the technology as a way to create computer displays in car or train windows, but Xtreme Energetics wants by 2010 to begin including this circuitry in its solar panels to improve their ability gather sunlight—another take on the thin-film model.
Because the solar panels would be transparent, Xtreme is also hoping that architects and builders will be willing to incorporate these unobtrusive solar panels into their designs. "Today, most of these solar cell farms sit out in the desert," says Xtreme CEO Colin Williams. "The problem with these desert-based utilities is that they're not anywhere near their customers, so they have to transport the power, which leads to a loss of energy. We wanted to offer something that a company could install on the roof of its data center."
It is still much too early to determine whether IBM, Intel and HP will be as successful creating a mass market for solar energy on par with what they did for computers. "Thin film will be able to take the cost of electricity down to better compete with existing utility prices," says Vasilis Fthenakis, senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory's National Photovoltaic Environment Research Center in Upton, N.Y., and a Columbia University professor of environmental engineering. "But we really need to see in detail what these companies are proposing and whether it will truly be different from the solar technology already being developed for the past several years."
The companies are funding their own research, without government subsidies or tax incentives, which may or may not come once the technology is ready to hit the market. "The big question," Fthenakis says, "is who can bring the price down in an unsubsidized market."
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7 Comments
Add CommentI seem to recall reading that one of the reasons for solar cell prices is the high cost of some rare materials used.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder, with the advent of some interesting nanotech based properties of materials, how long it will be before we can "design" a material that will be an efficient solar energy converter, based on commonly available materials?
Does anyone know if this line of research is being pursued?
Solar Energy is a farce. After 40+ years of R&D we still have to pay thousands of Dollars to get a fraction of our needs to run a house on Solar Energy. They still only get up to 15% efficiency.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIF, half the brains went into solar R&D as it has into human cell research we would have at least 75% efficiency by now at a much lower cost.
PC Computers started at around $2500 for a basic computer 25 years ago to the same $1500 today. So the Computer industry did not keep up with the promise of better-smaller-cheaper either. The computer is still BIG, still costly, and the programs are loaded with limitations and problems.
When, business realizes that consumers can and will just STOP buying, then they will decide to apply all this fenominal brain power to good work. I also think the Manufacturers of Computers are responsible for collecting and reusing old computers, before selling new ones.
There's good reason why comanies that rely on silicon would like to see solar panels move to something else.... supply and demand. Yes, there's a lot of silica around, but computers currently need it and solar panels do not.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisand BTW, contrary to what Sfpanama2 says, solar energy is not a farce. Even at its current high price it still pays for itself within some years. There are many forces working against it though, big oil, centralized power grid co-ops, and backward right-wingers who just plain hate change.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Find a need a need & fill it" was an old catch phrase I remember some company used as part of their logo years ago. Still true today as it was then that typifies the best in entrepreneurial spirit to tackle tough problems. If the last 20 years is any indicator, we will scoff at the way we consume energy today 20 years hence. More power to them!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSir,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am a Green Card Holder with Indian Citizen.
I am presently residing in Hoffman Estates IL-60169.
Your company is expert in harnessing Solar-Power by various techniques.
Qualification: B.Sc in (Electrical Engineering) from Punjab University in India.
F.I.E (Life long Fellowship of Electrical Engineer Institute of India)
Experience: 38 yrs experience in Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution.
I Retired as Chief Engineer from a Power Utility in India.
Goal: Now I want to start installing Solar Panels on flat roofs of Brick Tiles cemented together, of residential houses in India (being a very good sunshine there) from a very small business because of less money but later on can expand whenever more earning follows. Is it possible? The A.C Supply in India is Phase-Neutral=220V 50HZ, 3Phase Phases-Phase=400 V 50HZ. All home appliances can be used for this system.
Kindly guide me by sending complete details (Covering all points technical, commercial, shipment, terms and condition of payment and any other point left) at my email address: amrikmpower@yahoo.com
I shall be highly grateful to you for this.
Hoping an early reply.
With Best Regards.
Yours Sincerely,
Amrik Singh
001-847-913-3757 cell
Sir,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI appreciate the AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC tremedously.Three cheers for them.
I am a Green Card Holder with Indian Citizen.
I am presently residing in Hoffman Estates IL-60169.
You are expert in harnessing Solar-Power by various techniques.
I submit my request as below.
Qualification: B.Sc in (Electrical Engineering) from Punjab University in India.
F.I.E (Life long Fellowship of Electrical Engineer Institute of India)
Experience: 38 yrs experience in Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution.
I Retired as Chief Engineer from a Power Utility in India.
Goal: Now I want to start installing Solar Panels on flat roofs of Brick Tiles cemented together, of residential houses in India (being a very good sunshine there) from a very small business because of less money but later on can expand whenever more earning follows. Is it possible? The A.C Supply in India is Phase-Neutral=220V 50HZ, 3Phase Phases-Phase=400 V 50HZ. All home appliances can be used for this system.
Kindly guide me by sending complete details (Covering all points technical, commercial, shipment, terms and condition of payment and any other point left) at my email address: amrikmpower@yahoo.com
I shall be highly grateful to you for this.
Hoping an early reply.
With Best Regards.
Yours Sincerely,
Amrik Singh
001-847-913-3757 cell