Solar energy cheaper than coal?
May 22, 2008
The problem with most solar energy options has been its price tag. Most businesses and homeowners don’t have the tens of thousands of dollars required to fit their existing homes and buildings with expensive solar panels. Sure some people cried out to the government for subsidized programs, but when’s the last time Bush listened to any nonsense regarding alternative energy?
A new company called Sunrgi wants to change all that. From SolveClimate.org:
Hollywood-based start-up Sunrgi claims its solar will be as cheap as coal — and soon.
The cost: 5 cents wholesale per kilowatt-hour.
When: 12 to 15 months for commercial production.
Solar power at 5 cents per kWh would be a world-changing breakthrough. It would make solar generation of electricity as affordable as generation from coal, natural gas or other non-renewable sources, without requiring any subsidy.
That’s the lowest price ever promised by a solar company.Sunrgi concentrates sunlight so that it’s up to 2,000 times brighter than the sun. (Typical systems aim for around 500 to 800 times sun concentration.)
That intense spot of concentrated light is then focused onto super tiny photovoltaic cells — made from some of the most efficient materials on the planet over at Spectrolab — that can convert 37.5% of the sun’s energy into electricity. For the unversed, that’s an ambitious claim. The world record for solar efficiency is 31.25% using photovoltaics.
With such concentrations of sunlight, Sunrgi’s cells can be smaller than those of its competitors, as well. In fact, it claims to use four times less photovoltaic material than other approaches, which helps to explain, in part, its lower costs.
The Sunrgi model requires less space, too. In the company’s words: “more power less land.” And, like the booming First Solar, Sunrgi’s technology is not dependent on shortage-prone silicon. Another boon for cost.
However, SolveClimate says Sunrgi has not released any in-depth reports about their claims, so it’s hard to say whether they’ll actually be able to do what they claim. They claim this technology will be out in 12-15 months so all we can do at this point is wait and see.
But as they point out, it’s really about when, and not if, solar (or other alternative forms of clean energy) will be the same price, or cheaper, than coal. I can’t wait to see that day come to fruition.
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