US Funds Aggressive Tech To Cut Solar Power Costs

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US Funds Aggressive Tech To Cut Solar Power Costs

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday October 26, 2011 @09:33PM from the aim-big dept.

coondoggie writes "The U.S Department of Energy wants researchers and scientists to 'think outside the box' and come up 'highly disruptive Concentrating Solar Power technologies that will meet 6/kWh cost targets by the end of the decade.' The DOE's 'SunShot Concentrating Solar Power R&D' is a multimillion dollar endeavor that intends to look beyond what it calls the incremental near-term to support research into transformative technologies that will break through performance barriers known today, such as efficiency and temperature limitations."

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6 cents by earthman · 2011-10-26 21:42 · Score: 4, Informative

I admit to reading the article (sorry), thus I know it's 6 cents.
1. Re:6 cents by Maury+Markowitz · 2011-10-26 23:33 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  > That's still a mostly bogus number.
  Um no. The article is clearly talking about LCoE, the basis upon which all industrial power pricing is compared.
  > Besides the hard facts (cents per kW under STC, usually called kWp or kW peak) that number also includes
  > projections about the longevity of the cells and the environmental conditions of their use,
  > which are wide open to manipulation.
  If that were the number they were referring to, you might have a point. But it's not, and you're wrong anyway. STC measurements are normally done at 3rd party labs for just this reason.
Re:The other costs by hrvatska · 2011-10-26 22:28 · Score: 4, Informative

Even if solar panels were free, solar electricity still has a high hurdle to jump before it becomes competitive with other sources.
The costs include the mounting structure and the power inverter.
The article isn't about electricity from photovoltaic panels mounted on roofs. It's about large industrial scale solar concentrators like this one. It has the potential to be cheaper than PV generated electricity and it keeps producing electricity after the sun goes down.
Re:A world leader as a disruptive patent troll? by ciggieposeur · 2011-10-27 01:15 · Score: 3, Informative

The tech belongs to Germany, Japan, China. They did the research and raced to the bottom with production lines churning out many solar panels.
The key ingredient to solar panels (polysilicon) has a very strong U.S. player in the form of Dow Corning's Hemlock Semiconductor.