PV Manufacturing Outlook

Interesting webinar about the outlook for PV manufacturers in the US. Roger Little from Spire Solar was the presenter. He feels that the demand for PV modules in the US will far outstrip capacity to make them over the next few years. The majority of this demand is coming from PPA's that are strictly wanting crystalline silicon. This is primarily due to it's proven reliability over the long haul (usually 20 years).

There is a tremendous opportunity in his view for US companies. When you take the cost of transportation (i.e from China) it makes plants here in the US competitive. He is exploring a great idea where you place the cell assembly facilities on site for a large solar farm. The idea is that it is a very mobile set up and virtually eliminates transportation costs. These plants could produce large 1Kw panels that would bring the costs down even more. Since they are basically going out the backdoor the field their large size is not a transportation issue. Then when the project is done they move the facility to the next job.

His projection is that it would run about 5 million dollars in capital to build a 50Mw panel manufacturing facility (assembly of cells in to panels). The beauty of these small facilities is that you could get them up and running profitably in about 9 months and they can supply a local market, He would like to see one of these in every state...me too...though keep in mind that Spire sells the equipment to do this.

You can listen to the replay here at Greentech Media:

http://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=lobby.jsp&eventid=185622&sessionid=1&key=A9717CFEC64B8BFBEDF10C2E87381EFB&eventuserid=31882008

GridRouter Seminar

Attended a webcast about the GridRouter as I've been interested in what they are doing. Pretty unique piece of hardware that has the attention of the utility companies. It's really about installing their device and allowing the utilities to remotely monitor or mange their smart meters (a communications hub as they put it). The nice thing that it's built on open standards which makes it very flexible.

The initial idea is to collect data about usage (from a smart meter) so they can bill the customer. But this really opens to the door to many possibilities beyond the consumer endpoint. The vision is that is this can be the conduit to do a lot more from managing transformers, to customer's smart appliances (say in the event of a brown out). It uses Linux as the OS so you could take this much farther that the utility industry. Maybe things like remote pipeline monitoring or controlling machinery, stop lights, you name it.

SolarLease Program

PG&E and SolarCity announced a partnership to provide solar system leases to homeowners. PG&E will pony up $60 million which will help SolarCity provide about 1,000 rooftop solar systems. In these type of installations SolarCity retains ownership of the system and the homeowner agrees to purchase the power produced from them. This is done through a PPA or Power Purchase Agreement which provides a set cost for the power over the life of the systems (usually increasing a little each year). The customer doesn't need to worry about upfront payments, maintenance of the systems or rising energy costs down the road, they just get a bill every month..and they know they are truly buying green power!

We definitely need more programs like this.

http://solarcity.com/pressreleases/52/PG-E-Corporation-and-SolarCity-Announce-$60-Million-in-Financing-to-Install-Solar-Power-for-Businesses-and-Homeowners.aspx