New BP Solar Panels

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System
System Posts: 2,511 admin
in General Solar Power Topics #1
A friend of my who works for British Petroleum told me today that BP
is about to introduce some new panels with an efficiency of 30%
If this is true sales of panels should go through the roof.

brad

Of course he knows i buy Kyoceras and may simply be baiting me :|



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  • Roderick
    Roderick Solar Expert Posts: 253 ✭✭
    #2
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    Re: New BP Solar Panels

    If this is silicon, I doubt 30% efficiency. As I understand it (could be wrong, my semiconductor training is 25 years old), the only current you can extract is from an electron dropping from the first energy band down to the ground state. This means that given the spectrum of sunlight, only so much electricity can be extracted, and the rest is lost as heat.

    In the lab, there are efficiencies in excess of 30% with exotic materials like gallium or indium, but last I checked, these still had severe issues hampering economical production. If BP is going to announce something that can challenge silicon commercially, then this is big news. I would expect other rumors to be in the field, if it was real, and your friend had leaked it.

    Don't get me wrong, I dearly hope the rumor's true. I held my breath for cold fusion, hoping against hope. And I'm crossing my fingers for Nanosolar, hoping they can deliver their 0.50/watt 4 years from now. If we get solar for the masses, it will go a long way in defusing these wars in places like Iraq. I hope it's true; I really do.
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  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    #3
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    Re: New BP Solar Panels

    Lets hope there is something to it. Last Thursday the leader of the organisation of solar energy products producing industry in germany said that he expects the prices of solarpanels to fall as much as 50% within the next 18 month, due to the slow wind down of the subsidies in germany. The company's did recuperate there massive investment in R&D and expansion of production lines.

    There are only 4 company's on the planet that control 80% of silicium production for solar panels. Wacker Chemie in Germany, Solar grade Silicon and Hemlock Semiconductor in the US and Tokujama corp. Japan.

    According to Carsten König, the above mentioned guy, new panel generations use way less silicon then the old ones, easily upsetting the rising cost for this material. The whole interview appeared in the German technology review.

    One can always hope, I will need a few 100 Watts more next year, when I will spend more, or most of my time up here in my off grid home, the city is getting me every day more down and it is so nice here on the mountain.

    Greetings

    Chris
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  • System2
    System2 Posts: 6,290 admin
    #4
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    Re: New BP Solar Panels

    well once thing is clear (to me, but then my family is all crazy) and thats that (barring a complete financial collapse) RE will come down in price. my current installers would not comment when asked if they think prices will go down, i am very confident they will as the need is there for mass production , and the need will do nothing but increase due to many factors not just one :)

    i decided not to add to my system this year with the same panels almost 50% more than last summer(!!). decided on insulation, pellets etc instead (also a racket right now but what can you do)
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