Frost & Sullivan is reporting that polysilicon shortages that have slowed the solar PV industry will end in 2008. The expectation is the 4 top polysilicon producers will add 17,000 tons of capacity this year, a jump of almost 50% in production. Compare that with the total demand of 26,000 tons in 2004. Shows how much this industry is booming….in fact, the expectation is solar will eat up almost 50% of the output of high purity silicon by 2009.

That’s an important step for the solar industry gaining more political and economic power…a great sign for the industry’s growth.

The Presentation (Flash is required)
To move to the next slide, click on the right side of the current slide. Click on the left side to go back.

Videos from the Solar Power event are up on the website. As always, you can watch snippets of the video on YouTube as well.

In addition, check out Sunpower’s Solar savings calculator to see how much you could potentially save with a solar installation. Only takes about 5 minutes.

A question came up at the solar talk on Tuesday…there is confusion on standard power conversions. What does it mean when a power plant is 15 MW? How about my PG&E bill that rates everything in kw h?

In science class, energy is generally labeled in Joules (sometime kilojoules - KJ or megajoules - MJ). Energy is time independent…it’s just energy.

But we never hear about Joules in normal life. We always hear about Watts (sometimes kW - kilowatt, MW - megawatt).

1 Watts = 1 Joule/second.

So when you hear about a 100 W bulb, that means it ’s using 100 Joules of energy per second. A 15 MW plant (that number represents peak output) can produce 15 million joules per second.

Now to your electric bill. You get billed on a kw*h (kilowatt hour) basis.

1 kw* h= 1000 watts hour= 1000 (Joules/second) * hour = 1000J/sec * 60 sec/1 min * 60 min/hour = 3,600,000 Joules.

So your electric bill actual does state how much energy is being used. Just with a bastardized unit of measure.

Solar Thermal Through
Thermal troughs use mirrors to concentrate the sun’s heat to cook tubes of oil up to 400 C. That oil is then passed through water, heating it to steam which drives a turbine.

Presently, a couple “plants” supply power. These plants exist out in the desert and typically provide 100-300 megawatts of power (30K-120K homes).

Thin Film Solar
It’s the same concept as standard PV solar, but the material uses polymer substrates to create a flexible material. The resultant material is much faster to install while providing similar energy output as PV. In addition, much less silicon is used, possibly lowering the cost down the road.

The technology is still in a demonstration phase (not much manufacturing capacity), but shows a good deal of promise.

Here is a video on a thin film startup in the Bay Area (c/o KQED QUEST)

Solar Paint
Still in development, the idea is a special set of ingredients (aluminized mylar and indium tin oxide) are mixed in with paint. When sunlight hits the paint, electrons are knocked loose straight into wires that connect directly to your home’s power. The potential is monumental…cheap, easy to apply, little to no installation.

These are just a few examples….an extraordinary amount of money is being poured into solar research in the last few years. We do have a lot to look forward to when it comes to solar, the question seems to be transitioning from research into strategy for implementation…a huge issue for any new energy source.

PBS NOVA ran a program recently called “Saved by the Sun”, detailing solar technologies and commentary on whether its time to switch over to solar nationally.

In one of their interactive pieces, they describe the inner workings of a Solar PV cell, the kind that most people have installed on their roofs (as will be described in our upcoming cafe). Flash is required to view the below explanation.

You can also see a larger version here.

In upcoming days, I will delve into the varied world of new solar technologies, from thin-film to solar thermal.