Next Generation Solar | Green Energy News

April 14, 2002 – Vol.7 No.3

NEXT GENERATION SOLAR.

Today, manufacturing the current crop of solar photovoltaic cells is a slow and tedious process. That tedium, along with material and the energy costs related to production, leads to the high cost of solar energy. For the cost of photovoltaic solar energy to drop - to become competitive with other energy technologies - the production process needs to be much faster and much more efficient. Solar cells need to realize the cost benefits of automated mass production.

Researchers at Colorado State University have developed a fully automated process of producing three-inch square solar cells at a rate of one every two minutes - 100 times faster than current production methods. The next step is to build a machine that can produce cells up to one-foot square. According to the researchers, in five to ten hours of production the larger machine could make enough solar cells to power an average house. The goal is to produce solar cells at less than $1 per watt of electricity generated . Visit Colorado State at http://www.engr.colostate.edu/me/ (Revisit for information posting.)