An answer to my enquiry about NENE from NXT
In answer to your question about New Energy Technologies, you are not the first person to ask about them. Because of this, Dennis did some research, checking out the work they are doing and let us know what his thoughts were. Here is a basic summary. First of all, there are some things that need to be clarified. They make some pretty aggressive statements about efficiency but they are based on the fact that they cover so much of the structure. The actual efficiency is probably about 5% or less. The real problems with their technology is the long term stability of the polymer solar cell they are using. If you look closely to their press releases and the things that they themselves report, they have a lot of work to do to make a commercial product. They state that they need to improve efficiency and performance and that they need to increase transparency of the glass surfaces. They also say they need to scale-up the current working prototype (the only demo I saw was of a structure the size of a shoebox) and believe me this is not an easy problem to solve. They also mention that they need to develop a low-cost manufacturing method which leads me to believe that the cost is too high to make commercialization economically viable. Most importantly, their biggest problems are durability and long-term product performance. The cells they are using are very humidity and oxygen sensitive. Most likely, they will not be able to provide a guarantee that the film will operate for more than about 5 years. They are going to have to provide at least a 25 year warranty or, my guess is, their economics do not work out for the customer. I wouldn't want to replace my windows every 10 years or so to keep them generating power. As you know, our scientific team tries to keep up with all the other technologies that are being developed and the obstacles they face. Some of these technologies have potential and some just will not work on a large scale commercial basis. As a short term investment there may be some opportunity there but in the long run we believe that by time they solve all the issues facing them, technology will have passed them by.
If you would like more information, I’m sure Dennis will be happy to speak with you.
Best Regards,
Michelle Gray
Executive Assistant to Charles R Provini
