Update on solar cells

Readers of this column may remember our praise for NASA’s invention of the photovoltaic cell and, especially, the wait while advanced photovoltaic cell materials — solar cells — are allowed to trickle down from national secrecy needs (especially the solar cell material printed on a photocopier). Hopes that this material would be released to public consumption have been delayed, mainly by Department of Defense needs to maintain U.S. superiority in space. In space, portable energy is everything, since you cannot plug in anywhere. Anyway, all that seems about to change.The company, PrimeStar Solar, based in Colorado, was one of the leaders in this thin film technology and they have been “allowed” to go commercial. Probably not with the latest versions, but that’s OK, the government paid for the development and they want to have the latest while we make do with something better in the interim. PrimeStar has been bought by GE. GE is in the consumer business.One of the problems with the thin film product is protection from the elements. It may be much cheaper to produce and be almost as efficient as the hand-built silicon wafer solar cells, but the thing is fragile when it comes to storm, flying debris, hail and so on. PrimeStar solved that with a glass/glass sandwich, protecting the cell and making the thing frameless at the same time. The cost savings over a current solar panel is about 40 percent (cheaper that is). Want to mount a solar cell on your house? Simply silicon glue them down to any flat surface. Done. GE bought the company right up.So I got to thinking … why would GE suddenly buy this company? Was it simply that they had solved the manufacturing process of a glass/glass sandwich? Or was it because PrimeStar had a newer solar membrane — supplied only to space interests — that GE wanted to secure for the future? Or was it perhaps something to do with new glass technology combined with the glass/glass process. And there it was, hidden in a GE press release only targeted at Wall Street: “GE’s thin film solar panels are a part of the company’s portfolio of solar electric power technologies. Thin film solar is produced by applying materials in thin layers — no bigger than a fraction of a human hair — between two windows of glass. Thin film technology could make it easier and cheaper to install panels that can be ‘rolled’ onto buildings.” That’s the holy grail of mini-power stations everywhere — ease of installation over existing roofs.Look, this is easy to explain: Analysts have predicted that worldwide demand for photovoltaics is expected to grow by 75 gigawatts over the next five years. What’s that equivalent to? The Palo Verde Nuclear power station makes 3.2 gigawatts per year. A hundred houses or office buildings with solar panels on their roofs could produce 1 megawatt per year. A hundred thousand houses or offices could produce a gigawatt per year. If every building sold in 2010 –—estimated at 347,000 — in the United States had a solar panel mandated as part of that sale, the United States would have an additional 3.8 gigawatts per year more power, more environmentally clean power, one less nuclear power plant power. If we did that for 10 years, we could stop using coal power plants too (232 gigawatts in 2009).And here’s the kicker: For every 300,000 homes or offices fitted with solar power, the taxpayer would need less cross-country major electric super highways. How much can that save? Oh, about $1.8 billion in 2012 alone. Figure 10 years of expanding our electric grids, the cost of tax dollars to build and monitor power stations (coal, gas, nuclear); we’re looking at over $23 billion. Here’s the math for the average household: You get about a 50 percent tax rebate from the government (state and federal), you spend $35,000 (less your tax rebate) to install a solar system on your roof (the estimate for PrimeStar is about $22,000 next year). You generate electricity and feed the grid all day long, even in upstate New York. On average, you’ll see no electric bill per month, or something very small, meaning you save $250 a month, on average. In 10 years you would have saved $30,000 (if electricity prices stay as they are — which they will not ). And what have you done for the environment? Plenty. You and 300,000 other households would have prevented the need for another nuclear power plant. Not a bad deal for you or the country. If every household in the United States had solar panels? We could shut down 40 power plants. If every building in the United States had solar panels? We could shut down more than 65 percent of the power plants. Peter Riva, formerly of Amenia Union, lives in New Mexico.