Solar Industry - Is there a future for you

The world is excited about the billions in new investment in solar energy which has dropped the cost of electricity over 70%. Even with this impressive improvement, solar still needs large subsidies to make economic sense for a typical home, business or institution. 

The sun provides the necessary "global warming" to keep the earth comfortable for humans to live. There is sufficient sunlight reaching the surface of the earth to meet all human energy requirements. But can this be done economically? 

Certain regions with the highest levels of sun (insolation) are seeing reasonable economics for direct solar water heating and offsetting burning fuels to keep greenhouses warm. 

Electricity production from the sun is greatly more expensive and still requires large subsidies to match current electric prices in most of the industrial world. This is not true for remote locations where grid power is not available. 

Let's review a few of the solar technolgy options commercially available. They are:

1) Solar Photovoltaic

  a) Silicon panel- This is your standard panel that you have seen on many rooftops. The photoelectric effort is used to directly convert an incident photon from the sun into a free electron. Crystalline Silicon (Si) has some of the best photoelectric chemical properties, but advances are being made in other materials such as in thinfilim with Cadmium Telluride (CdTe). 

Econmic breakthroughs are driven by efficiency improvements and major reductions in manufacturing costs. Along with incentives, this has lead to early adopters installing solar PV panels at a higher rate. In some states such as California, solar panels are even viewed as a miitgation strategy.

  b) Concentrating PV- There are a few venture funded companies focused on concentrating the sun to increase panel efficiency.

2) Solar Thinfilm- Over a dozen large thinfilm technology companies were venture funded between 2000 and 2008. FirstSolar, Sunpower and Suntech seem to be the front runners with several very capable firms right behind them. Thinfilm is less costly per installed watt, but also as much as 50% less efficient.

3) Concentrating Solar Power- The sun is used to heat some medium such as air, water or gas which is then used in more traditional technologies to be converted into electricity. 

So where does this leave you? As a technican there will be new electric, electronic and mechanical jobs created throughout the world. Obviosuly the regions closest to the equator have the best year to year isolation values and better solar economics. You could see opportunities in all areas of solar energy. 

For traditional power generation professionals, the concentrating solar projects will be closer to the technology you have worked with in your career. These projects will be limited to desert areas where isolation is greatest and land is least expensive. For technologies like BrightSource Energy or Sky Fuel, you will be needed to operate the traditional steam power generation plant.

 

Current Articles & White Papers