What Struggles Solar Companies?

In my previous posting, I basically touched upon some innovation in solar energy. Technology is important because it will change our daily lives. However, it is more intriguing for a business school student to think about what the solar energy industry look like, thereby fostering positive changes in the way we live. I just read an interesting article from Economist, indicating that solar power companies are struggling. But the survivors will have a bright future. I found this is interesting and would like to share three arguments presented in article. :)

1.     The solar panel is cheaper than the silicon panel even though the efficiency rate is a little bit higher then solar panel. First Solar’s panels have an average efficiency rate of 11-12% as opposed to 14-15% for the silicon ones. Yet they are cheap, costing around 74 cents per watt of generating capacity, compared to well over a dollar for the cheapest silicon panel. And they are getting better, with over 17% efficiency achieved in lab conditions. They also perform well at high temperatures and through dust—making them suitable for deployment out West.

2.     Market seriously oversupplied: Demand for solar panels doubled last year, driven by soaring growth in Germany and Italy. However, wider economic ills in Europe this year have given investors further pause, causing European demand for solar panels to plummet. In Germany, annual sales are expected to fall by more than 30%. Despite growth in America and China, global demand for solar sales is expected to grow by less than 10% this year. That leaves the market seriously oversupplied.

3.     Cost is the king: Early this year the average panel price was around $1.75 per watt; by the year’s end it could be as low as $1.10. That is less than the cost price for many Western manufacturers and small Asian ones, several of which have already gone bust. To survive, firms will need to keep cutting costs, especially in the non-panel parts of their product, including metalwork and wiring. They must also keep a grip on dwindling sources of credit. This will favour big Western firms and low-cost Chinese ones, especially those with friendly support from China’s state-controlled lenders.

According the argument presented above, the solar energy market is still full of uncertainties. The price of solar power still has far to fall before it is cheaper than electricity generated from fossil fuels—even if governments jack up fossil-fuel prices to reflect the cost of carbon emissions. And there are plenty of cloudy places, including northern Europe, where solar panels may never make much sense. Yet, I would personally see the solar energy or more broadly speaking green energy is a market shift, which is full of opportunities and challenges. Incremental improvements in current technology, breakthrough, and government policy are the factors we need to pay attention to, and I believe it has much to look forward to. 

A Green Design of "ECO TOWN" In The Future

Hello everyone. It's really nice to hear form you guys here. Last time we talked about the recovery plan implemented by solar power in Japan. There are still lots of controversy of its applicability and performance . I will keep posted if I get any new information related to their policies and actions. To be continued, let's share an interesting idea of green design of ECO TOWN. :)


Get back to the recovery plan that Miyagi prefecture proposed, it aimed to build an eco town in which all the houses would be equipped with solar panels and batteries are connected by the "SMART GRID". Its sounds very fascinating. However, how would this smart grid work? Let's take a look of the design diagram shown below:

In fact, the expected change in Japanese energy portfolio with more renewable energy will require adoption of smart grids to balance the electricity supply and demand. Japan was not the top runner in terms of smart grid introduction, but after the Great East Japan Disaster, analysts foresee acceleration of the introduction.  On the other hand, most of experimental smart meter installations have been done by electric power companies that have little investing power now and this may delay the smart meter diffusion.


With the advantages that smart grids and smart meter bring, we can ideally crate a eco town to use electricity more efficiently and self-generate electricity power by renewable energies like solar panel and wind power. Let's take a look of this pic of house design:

As you can see, the house will be installed solar panels on the rooftop and wind power device around the backyard. Ideally, based on the power-generating idea, the smart grid in pylon could calculate the electricity surplus that a house has now and store them for other households use. That is, during the daytime, people usually go to work or school and may not consume electricity that much. Hence, the smart grid could store the power that those solar panels or wind power generate and use it at nighttime when people are at home. This concept unveils the sharing power idea to every green house.


Let's imagine if every house in eco town could be a small power station for self use or even offering others. It definitely will improve the energy conservation significantly. However, the concern of what the cost would be is still challengeable. Personally, I think this idea is interesting and fascinating but we have to think about the cost and space that a green house needs. It it able to be spread out in developing countries? If any of you have insights about this eco town, please share your opinions with us. I appreciate your reading and sharing. See you next time!


Xavier (Chi-Tsung Lin) 




Graphic Resource: Texas Instruments

Will Solar Power Save Japan?

At first, I want to thank you for your reading and being interested in my blog. All of your comments are all significant to me. :) Today, I would like to share a news I read couple months ago about Solar Power in Japan. It has lots of insights of energy concern to be considered and discussed nowadays. We all know there was a severe earthquake and tsunami hit Japan and brought significant damage and loss this year. I was very sorry to hear that disaster happened and worried about its recovery plan and rescue. The first question came out of my mind: How should Japan do for damaged nuclear power plant? How's the electricity supply? 

Since the nuclear power station crashed by the tsunami, Japan aimed to use renewable energy like solar and wind power as substitutes to change its powering support structure. A recent newspaper poll by Asahi Shimbun found 64 percent of respondents believed renewable energies such as solar and wind power would replace nuclear power in the future.


To solve the shortage of electricity problems, many companies took "Rolling Blackouts" for energy conservation. Some big companies like Toshiba, Toyota, and Nissan etc would take two days off during the work week and some of them would extend its summer vacation. However, the improved supply-demand balance requires ongoing energy conservation by industries and households especially during summer when power demand increases for air conditioning. All of us should help them save energies as well. :)


Next, according to the speech that Japan Prime Minister Naoto Kan made, Japan aims to install solar panels on the roofs of 10 million houses (It is traditional solid solar panels). To support this plan, he also mentioned: “We must nurture the two new pillars of renewable energy and energy-efficiency, in addition to the existing pillars of nuclear power and fossil fuels”. As to renewable energy, he committed to “engage in drastic technological innovation in order to increase the share of renewable energy to more than 20 percent by the 2020s”. To achieve this, as a first step, “we aim to lower the cost of solar power generation to one third of its current level by 2020 and to one sixth by 2030”. 


As a result, in order to install solar powering house in the future, lower the cost of manufacturing would be a must. That's exactly the OPV's potentials in existing industry for sure. For the damaged areas like Iwate and Fukushima island, Japanese local governments are also looking at photovoltaics seriously to implement its recovery plan. This clean energy source is included in recovery plans by the three prefectures in northeast Japan that were impacted by the earthquake and tsunami most severely. 

• Iwate prefecture announced its long-term recovery plan this month that calls for faster adoption of renewable energies such as solar and wind power. 
• Miyagi prefecture also announced its recovery plan that includes the “Eco Town” project where all houses equipped with solar panels and batteries are connected by the smart grid. 
• Fukushima prefecture also plans to facilitate adoption of renewable energies dramatically.

It is obvious that Japan government has broached to develop its renewable energy industry especial in solar power. As a matter of fact, another big plan is to use its 20% of 540,000 hectares in unused farmland nationwide to build mega solar facilities to generate 50 million KW electricity supply that is almost equivalent to Tokyo Electric Power Company’s capacity in the summer. In essence, this plan would be initiated by Sharp Corp. 


Speaking of the efficiency issue, I calculated the percentage of the panels conversion rate based on its assumption. As below: 540,000 (hec) x 20% x 10,000=  108 x 10^7(meter square). So, 5 x 10^7 KW / 108 x 10^7 = 4.6%(KW/meter square). It's a bit lower than I expected in solid panels. But on the other side, for a mass production of solar panels on the needs, bringing OPVs into the market is coming soon in the near future. :)
Next time I would like to talk about a new idea about "ECO TOWN" and "SMART-GRID" design for renewable energy. Thank you for your review and see you next time.


Xavier (Chi-Tsung Lin)




News Resources: http://www.pvgroup.org/node/1496

Solar Plastic Panel Brings us More Convenience !!

Hello folks, It has been a while I didn't post new articles on my blog. Hope you guys would enjoy my topic at Solar OPV industry. Today I want to talk more about the applications of OPV. As I mentioned before, compared to the solid solar panels, the plastic panels are more flexible, lighter, and less costly. As a result, I concluded three major steps or I should say three progress of OPV development. At first, we could use the OPVs on "PORTABLE DEVICES" such as I-Pod, I-Pad, and cell phones.

Let's think about the I-pad case, usually we spend maybe $30 to $40 dollars on a silicone case for protecting I-pad being scratched or cracked. If, the case is not just for protection? Via developing the characteristics of OPV, we could make a plastic case with OPV cells to charge it from sun and light maybe 30% to 40% of the power storage. How would this market be? I would say the smartphones are getting more advanced with multifunctions. The following concern would be the battery issues of durability and power charging.




According to the cost issue, the manufacturing process of plastic production would approach to a low material cost and roll to roll manufacturing with mass production. The applicability of this idea would be reachable soon I expected.


Next, we could imagine that using the OPVs on "SMART FABRICS" such as bags, backpacks, tents, and awnings. In specific, plastic solar cells will be used for smart fabrics and interactive textiles applications. The properties of OPV cells that enable them to be a great candidate for power generation in wearable form are flexibility, ability to be printed on a variety of surfaces, availability in multiple colors, customizable shapes and sizes, and environmentally friendly profile - non-toxic, disposable and recyclable. For example, if we are going camping with family trip in a lake in rural areas, the smart fabric would help us to generate electricity power with any other machines being carried. Even your travel bags could be used to charge your lighting appliances or radio gears. 


However, what's the other applications you come up with? Any innovative ideas so far? In a long term development, the third application will be BIPV(Building Integrated Photovoltaics). Most of building are using glasses for the architecture covering system. What's the function of it? Ambient lighting purpose or decoration? What if we put so-called "Power Windows" on the building and use them to generate power for electricity needs? Speaking of its applicability, plastic solar cells are well suited for BIPV applications because of their flexibility, easy installation, better performance in low and indirect lights, and aesthetic value for architects. The biggest advantage is the low cost of electricity generation, at 20% of the cost of traditional solar cells, which puts them on par with fossil fuels. Direct embedding into building materials during manufacturing and lightweight and flexibility further reduces the installation cost. 

After the preliminary introduce of OPV, I believe you guys must have a basic understanding about plastic solar panels now. :) Let's share your ideas with me. If you have any innovative thoughts no matter in marketing, financing, manufacturing in solar industry or read any related articles please share with your insights with me. I will introduce the market of OPV and some news in solar industry to every of you in next posting. Thank you for reading my blog and hope you guys like it. See you next time :)


Xavier (Chi-Tsung Lin)

New Solar Technology Is Coming !!

Hello everyone, I would like to introduce you guys a new emerging solar technology which is Organic Photovoltaic Cell (OPV). What is OPV? It's a transparent and flexible plastic solar panel with more potential application and development in generating renewable energy from the sun. Compared to the solid solar panel made by silicon, its flexibility, light, appearance, lower manufacturing cost characteristics have been paid close attention to its potentials and applications. 


This is OPV:

How could this plastic thing to make an overwhelming impact on solar energy industry? I concluded the excellence of OPV products as follows:
1. Flexibility: Good flexibility and light-weight of OPV allow easy integration into various shapes and surfaces.
2. Low-Cost: OPV are much less expensive to produce due to the low cost of materials, as well as a relatively simple manufacturing process.
3. Better Low-Light Performance: OPV perform very well under low and indirect light, including indoors and cloudy outdoors, which is ideal for portable electronics applications as these devices are mostly used indoors, as well as for BIPV applications.
4. Color and Transparency: OPV can be made in different colors and can also be made transparent. This gives greater freedom to product designer and architects.
5. Non-toxic: No toxic materials are used in manufacturing OPV which makes them truly green.
6. Disposability: OPV are made from polymers, which constitutes most of the material in the module making them easy to dispose and recycle.


To further discuss, how can we use this advantages that OPVs have to develop more applications? In next week, I will show you guys what are the application that OPV could reach to improve our life and generate more solar power to save the earth.


Thank you for your review :)


Xavier