$1/WATT SOLAR?

Typically, thin-film is cheaper than silicon PV but less efficient. A competitive cost/watt indicates a breakthrough in thin-film manufacturing costs or a breakthrough in efficiency. There is no report of improved efficiency rippling through the industry and the article stresses this company's manufacturing technique, so it seems the professor has figured out a way to streamline the process of making thin-film solar.

Professor improves solar panels’ efficiency
Taylour Nelson, September 5, 2007 (The Coloradoan)

WHO
W.S. Sampath, professor of mechanical engineering, Colorado State University
AVA Solar Inc. (Russell Kanjorski, director of strategic planning), Department of Energy (DOE)

This is the AVA Solar thin-film schematic. Can they really produce them at $1/watt?

WHAT
Sampath has developed a thin film solar cell and manufacturing process which he claims will make solar energy cost competitive with electricity from fossil fuel sources.

WHEN
- Sampath and AVA Solar expect to produce cells for 200 megawatts of solar energy by the end of 2008.
- The solar energy industry has reportedly grown 40%/year for the last 5 years.

WHERE
Sampath’s solar panels will be manufactures at a plant in Fort Collins, Colorado, where the University is located.

WHY
- AVA Solar Inc., founded by Sampath and 2 former students now on the Colorado State faculty, will begin with $3 million funding from DOE’s Solar America Initiative.
Initial 3-megawatt production will put the cost of solar energy at $2/watt (half the current rate). Eventually it is expected to come down to $1/watt.
- Sampath’s cost-cutting soalr panels come from his observation of the Anheiser-Busch aluminum can manufacturing process.
- AVA Solar expects to create “a few hundred jobs” in the Fort Collins area.
Solar energy is a $6 billion/year industry.
- Sampath’s thin film cell, different from the silicon-based photovoltaic (PV) cell, uses cadmium telluride on a glass base.

The big prize will go to whoever creates true BIPV: Building Integrated PhotoVoltaics, a building material that makes sunlight/heat into electricity.

QUOTES
- Sampath: "With the volume they produce, the idea kept coming to our minds that if you make solar cells with this high level of automation, we could provide for at least part of our energy need…”
- Kanjorski, AVA Solar Inc.:“Our technology will be a significant discount to that of existing technology…The costs are coming down, but the more important reason for the industry — with this whole concern about fossil fuels and the environment — is Europe and Japan have subsidized the industry with huge incentives for people who use solar energy…That is stimulating demand and helping to create the market. As the technologies get better, we can bring the costs down.’’