FirstSolar: One Big ol' Solar Family
For my solar junkies out there, here is a great article by GreenTech Media on the near future of thin film and c-Si solar panels. The article draws from a presentation by CTO of FirstSolar (Raffi Garabedian), the largest thin film panel manufacturer in the industry, where he is discussing FirstSolar's decision to spread into other solar application and product areas, all under the same company. Not because the CdTel industry is dieing, but rather because various techologies need to start complementing each other, like a family of products.
Firstly, I appreciate the insight about needing to diversify product based on the diversity of applications. In some cases its about the IRR and in others its really about the efficiency. I think this is going to lead to more customization in the microgrid space, which is really necessary based on the fact that microgrids are so specific to their locality. I also appreciated his point about efficiency now being on the cost margin for large scale buyers, but not for space constrained applications. But since a couple point of efficiency can push prices outside of the buying potential for that market, efficiency gains can't come at any cost. Together this has caused a slow down in efficiency investment and therefore in basic panel innovation. Investors are going for the quick technology fixes - contacts, electronics etc. But commercial 30% efficiency is on the horizon, we can almost taste it! So the CTO is encouraging investors not to give up on the innovation at the cell level. We can tunnel through to really high efficiency, low cost panels if we listen to this advice. He didn't touch on toxity or telluride supply issues, but I guess one step at a time.
I thought Garabedian's outlook was realistic and optimistic at the same time. Great read in my opinion, feel free to share thoughts!
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Slideshow-First-Solars-CTO-on-CadTel-and-Silicon-PV-Under-One-Roof/all
