Comments on: The Solar Energy Sector: Profit From the “Solar Shift” With These Five Firms

By: Phoenix55

Phoenix55 — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:40:20 +0000

Thin film has several advantages other than cost. Because of lower weight and the flexibility of the film, a much wider array of applications are possible. Cbird sites Germany’s strong support for PV without mentioning that they are heavily invested in thin film. They have bought the entire first year production of NanoSolar, one of the leaders in thin film PV.

By: CBird

CBird — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:40:59 +0000

Thin film ( FSLR) is cheaper to manufacture than silicon-but less efficient. To net the same amount of watts the thin film has to be almost twice the size of silicon- using more real estate per installation. The proponents of FSLR etc have contributed to the myth that silicon is scarce. Silicon is probably second only to air as the most abundant on earth. It is true that there are only a few producers of the wafers- but that is only because demand has been limited so production has been limited. There are several groups that have resisted solar power . Coal and big oil want to retain market share so prices are artificially reduced(not counting environmental or import costs)- and then Power industry. Solar power is point of use– no transmission lines- no power stations- no taxable plants, no pollution.
Germany is leading in installations of solar- and the savings in pollution reduction is inestimable- not to mention balance of payments for imports. We need to chase all the lobbyists and lifetime congressmen out of Washington. Solar is not the enemy of big oil or big coal- if they realize that they are energy companies- not oil and coal- and get on board providing solar energy installations.

By: R. Martin

R. Martin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:54:27 +0000

Fessler may be right on solar, but not on FSLR. This company’s technology is outdated and its cost of manufacturing too high. He should do his research first.

By: bill walker

bill walker — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:31:58 +0000

Nice article exstolling the future of solar electric generation. However, like other articles I have read there seems to be a glaring avordance to cost comparision to other methods of electrical generation.