interesing article on SOLAR and why ASTI could go to a 100..
The last sentence sums it up nicely!
It's hard to dispute the fundamentals of the solar business: There's an unending supply of sunshine (at least for the next several billion years), potential customers — the government, businesses and consumers — are looking for ways to lessen their dependence on overextended electric grids, pricey oil, and other fossil fuels, and there's the added bonus of great PR that comes with joining the fight against global warming.
Clean Edge, a research and consulting firm that advises companies on how to make profits from "clean" technologies, estimates that revenue from the installation and purchase of solar PVs will grow into a $69.3 billion market by 2016 — a 344% increase from the $15.6 billion the industry pulled in last year.
The growth rate is staggering, but there's one caveat: Those estimates, says Clean Edge co-founder Ron Pernick, will only fly if the cost to install solar PV systems comes down significantly. As it stands now, solar is prohibitively pricey. Consumers shell out an average $30,000 to $40,000 to retrofit their homes with a four-kilowatt solar system. And while Pernick notes that prices for solar PVs have dropped significantly in the past 30 years, they will have to drop by a lot more before we start seeing much wider adoption of the technology. In order to reach a goal of price parity with electric rates of about $2 to $3 a peak watt installed, Pernick estimates that prices for solar PV systems will need to be cut in half.
That's no small feat for an industry haunted by a shortage in its main ingredient, polysilicon, a highly refined form of silicon used in solar panels and computer chips. Due to its complexity and cost, polysilicon is produced by only a handful of manufacturers. As demand continues to grow, these manufacturers have become increasingly overextended, thus pushing prices ever higher. Therein lies the sticky wicket for solar power: How to make the technology affordable enough that it can be adopted on a massive scale? The solution is twofold. First, there needs to be the establishment and/or extension of federal and state tax incentives and credits. Secondly, we must await the widespread commercial launch of cheaper, more accessible solar technologies that will be less reliant
right up ASTIs corner. last sentence sums it up for ASTI
AI
