http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/n...75B16B?id=44457 First the Japanese out do us in hybrids, now the Chinese are going to kick our nice person big time with solar. That's ok, we're still number one in bling bling and reality TV shows!
Not if they don't get around the silicon shortage. The US leads in research on quantum dot and other novel manufacturing techniques. The Chinese have cheap labor. China will be a huge market. They're a huge country with rapidly growing energy needs. We're also very competitive in wind. BTW, I see you're a fan of renewableenergyaccess too. Should post they're weekly article on the wind boom. It's an encouraging article.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Mar 28 2006, 01:22 AM) [snapback]231265[/snapback]</div> I was under the impression that silicon is naturally abundant. I'm not a material science person, but if the demand is big enough can't the production of solar silicon be scaled to cost effectiveness? If not, I'd advise you to invest in WFR.
High grade silicon appearently isn't. I think that this is an issue with the current PV technologies, particularly mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline panels which require high grade silicon. Those two technologies currently account for something like 90% of PV module production. Thus the constraint. PV prices have actually gone up somewhat due to the inability of suppliers to produce enough panels. I think that Sharp is selling off a lot of it's current technology to focus on next gen PV production techniques. I think the end result of this will be a net positive but companies are having some difficulties working through it. I guess that's the one downside to the rapid growth that the industry has experienced in recent years.
