SOLAR POWER INTERNATIONAL 2008 & SOLAR TUBES - NEW NEW THINGS

Nothing gets attention like the newest new thing.

Crowds flocked to the San Diego Convention Center October 15 to bask in the glow of the exciting and new as Solar Power International opened its doors to the public for a night.

The exhibit hall was tingling with a sense of opportunity as a diverse multitude of every shape and color explored the promise of solar energy.

At last year's Solar Power show, the most common reason folks gave NewEnergyNews for exploring the huge display floor was to find out if they could afford a solar system. This year, the most common reason (on the much HUGER display floor): To find work in the solar industry. What a difference a year (and a crash) makes.

NewEnergyNews talked to a woman in marketing, a fellow in sales, a headhunter, and young college grad after young college grad, all looking for the same thing: Oportunity in the sun.

And, like any jaunt through the unmatchable natural resource that is the American public, there was an unending stream of the remarkable:

A TB doctor whose house in nearby Ramona was destroyed by wildfires a year ago has decided that since she has to rebuild, she will turn the disaster into an opportunity by rebuilding sustainably, in a "green" way. Her first project: Picking a solar installation.

A retired physicist has come to believe solar energy is the future and says he would go into the field if he was starting his career over but, since we only get to run this experiment called life once for ourselves, he is going to back his contractor nephew in a solar business.

A single mom is preparing her home to go completely offgrid.

A materials scientist flew in from Boston to explore new technologies used in manufacturing processes.

A retired carpenter whose nest egg is now fried wants to put an installation in his orchard to cut his power costs. He plans to do all the building himself and have his electrician brother-in-law do the technical part.

A group of University of California at San Diego students is planning to raise funds for and build a solar system for a local non-profit organization.

A class from an inner city East Los Angeles technical training program was on a field trip to learn about the range of potential jobs they are being trained to step into. Seeing the enormous panoply of opportunity, they were excited.

The headlines may be knocking these folks down, but they are all about getting back up.

Notice the word opportunity came up 3 times in those few preceding paragraphs. Solar energy and opportunity make a perfect rhytmic rhyme these days. There will be more on Solar Energy International's open house in another piece soon.

Meanwhile, in Silicon Valley (the birthplace of the new new thing), the entrepreneurs aren't satisfied - of course - with today's solar panels. How about turning thin film solar from flat to tubular?

But is new the same as better?

Richard Branson, the billionaire entrepreneur, thinks so this time. His Virgin Green Fund got pitches from 117 solar companies and put money on Solyndra, a Silicon Valley company that invented this different way to make thin film solar panels.

Anup Jacob, partner, Virgin Green Fund: "They have the potential to become the next great energy company…"

Solyndra rolls its copper, indium, gallium, selenide (CIGS) thin film into cylindrical solar cells and lay them out, 40 tubes per panel, on large, white, flat roofs. Solyndra says they get 20% more efficiency than flat, 14%-efficient CIGS panels and generate twice the kilowatt-hours.

The innovative design also allows streamlined installation and (thereby) dramatically reduced costs.

According to Scientific American, roughly half the cost per kilowatt-hour of a typical solar photovoltaic installation is related to the cost of installing the panels.

Scientific American calculation: There is approximately 30 billion square feet (2.8 billion square meters) of large, flat roof space in the U.S., enough to collect solar energy for 16 million homes and replace 38 coal plants.

That’s the Solyndra market.

There has been a lot of action in solar in the last 18 months. Will the financial crisis mess things up for Solyndra (and solar) in 2009? Numbers don't lie: Solyndra has orders for $1.2 billion worth of its solar panels over the next five years. A few other solar industry numbers: SunPower projects 2008 revenues to top $1 billion. Nanosolar, a CIGS thin-film specialist, recently raised $300 million and is shipping panels.

One solar market analyst has a cautious view of Solyndra. Brian Fan, research director, Cleantech Group: "Obviously, they play in a quite crowded space…The big question, as with all other thin-film solar companies, is: Can these guys manufacture at commercial-scale production rates with high yields and at a reasonable cost per watt?"

A Brookhaven National Labs environmental engineer is more specific about the price and reliability questions yet to be answered about Solyndra.

Vasilis Fthenakis, senior scientist, Brookhaven National Laboratory's National Photovoltaic Environment Research Center: "Companies have had difficulties producing CIGS without many defects…They may get more from deflected or reflected light but how much more? That needs to counterbalance the increased costs of production…"

Answers will come. Field results will determine whether Solyndra will be able to proceed with its planned second, larger plant next year. By then there will surely be a newer new thing.

As for the folks NewEnergynews talked to at the San Diego Convention Center, both in the solar energy industry and in the public-at-large, everything under the sun glows and hums with their ever new zest and strength.

Solyndra, from manufacture to installation. From BusinessWire via YouTube.

Fremont’s Solyndra goes from stealth to solar star
Matt Nauman, October 6, 2008 (San Jose Mercury News)
and
Cylindrical Solar Cells Give a Whole New Meaning to Sun Roof; Solyndra hopes to capture the wasted sunlight falling on roofs by making solar cells into cylinders rather than panels
David Biello, October 7, 2008 (Scientific American)

WHO
Solyndra (Chris Gronet, founder/CEO)

WHAT
Solyndra has a whole new design concept for distributed generation solar systems directed especially at improved efficiencies and lower costs on large flat roofs.

A Solyndra cylinder. (click to enlarge)

WHEN
- 2005: Solyndra founded.
- Late 2007: Solyndra was one of 16 clean-tech companies to get $4 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy. (Others among the 16: electric car company Tesla Motors and solar power plant builder BrightSource Energy)
- Summer 2008: Solar Power of Sacramento confirmed a $327 million order from Solyndra and Phoenix Solar, a German company, placed a $681 million order with Solyndra.
- July 2008: Solyndra started shipping solar panels.
- October 6, 2008: Solyndra presented its product to the public.
- End of 2008: Large systems installed.

WHERE
Solyndra renovated buildings visible from Interstate 880 (Silicon Valley’s Main Street) in Fremont, CA, with glass walls and prominent Solyndra signs to announce itself to thousands of Valley commuters. Expansions are planned to a production capacity of 110 megawatts.

WHY
- Solyndra has raised more than $600 million and already has 500 employees.
- Its panels are on racks ~1 foot above a roof's white painted surface (to maximize reflectivity) and generate more electricity.
- Panels are not attached to the roof but held in place by gravity, allowing the wind to blow through, cooling the tubular thin-film.
- Panels snap in place, cutting installation cost 50% and installation time by two-thirds.
- Because the tubes are cylindrical, the panels don’t require tilting and are ideal for flat roofs.
- CIGS material does not require silicon ansd are therefore cheaper than silicon PV panels.
- The largest installation of Solyndra panels at present is the 50-kilowatt system on its own roof.
- Gronet, the Solyndra founder/CEO, holds 20 patents and a Ph.D. and is a veteran of solar energy pioneer Applied Materials. The Solyndra team is made up of Silicon Valley veterans (Applied Materials, Novellus and Lam Research).

A Solyndra installation. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Chris Gronet, founder/CEO, Solyndra: "There's a vast underutilized resource for generating solar power, and it's right over our heads…There's over 30 billion square feet of large, flat commercial rooftop space (in the United States). If we covered that with our solar panels, that would generate 150 gigawatts, enough electricity to generate power for 15 percent of U.S. homes."
- Gronet, on cost: "We have a clear path to grid parity, producing photovoltaic electricity at the same cost as conventional electricity from fossil fuels…With a cylinder, we are collecting light from all angles, even collecting diffuse light…we have half the installation cost and can install in one third the time."
- Gronet, on stability: "Our test installation in Florida survived [Tropical Storm Fay]…"
- Vasilis Fthenakis, environmental engineer/senior scientist, Brookhaven National Laboratory's National Photovoltaic Environment Research Center: "We envision large-scale photovoltaics in the desert but it's much easier for people to accept systems on the roof…It's cheaper to put them on roofs than on real estate."