GMI1982

Solar Grade: A Silicon Revolution

The cell cost is not critical measure for solar deployment, especially those for utility plant scale. It is the system cost. Compare CPV solutions, i.e. Emcore, to those based on silicon, thin film, etc. And NO OTHER technology vendor offers a 20 year warranty.

Solar's Warm, But Not Hot - Barron's

Interesting that you don't mention, Emcore (EMKR), the leader in Concentrated PhotoVoltaic technology. They offer system solutions now that used up significantly less acreage that thin film or silicon-based solar cells, and their cost is about $.37/watt for the cells in 100MW quantities or about $4/watt at the system level. This is by far the lowest cost of all solar cell technologies available today. With efficiencies expected to increase from 39% to 45% plus in 2 years, you will see the cost closer to $1.80/watt and the kWh cost cheaper than the $.10-.20 being paid today for coal-fired power.