Posted on Sunday, 03.14.10
By RENEE SCHOOF
McClatchy Newspapers
TOLEDO, Ohio -- One piece of the American effort to find a way to make solar energy cheap enough that everyone will want it is unfolding in a modest redbrick building in this Midwestern city once known as one of the nation's top makers of glass.
Xunming Deng, a physicist, started a solar company in Ohio eight years ago as a spinoff from his research at the University of Toledo. He's attracted $40 million in venture capital, and designed and purchased manufacturing equipment. He now thinks that his Xunlight Corp. is on the brink of profitability and fast growth. It expects certification this spring and is getting ready to ramp up production.
Deng's story reflects one of the innovative approaches that U.S. thin-film photovoltaic solar companies are taking to bring down the costs of solar installations for homes, businesses and utilities. All aim for a mass market with economies of scale that make solar energy comparable in price to energy from fossil fuels.
Several of these companies are in Toledo, part of the legacy of the late Harold McMaster, a glass innovator who started a solar company that later became First Solar, which now employs about 1,000 people just outside Toledo.
"The way I envision it is that someday solar will penetrate the market and go to everybody's home," much the way cell phones and personal computers did, Deng said. "I feel that one day our energy platform will be much more renewable, and we want to be a big part of it."
The widespread use of solar that Deng envisions could help the U.S. reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases from coal and natural gas. It also could help provide clean energy that electrifies vehicles, reducing the country's $350 billion annual bill for foreign oil.
Although solar energy today provides only 1 percent of U.S. electricity, it's growing quickly, adding jobs in factories such as Deng's and at companies that install the equipment.
"Everybody's trying to get the upfront costs down," said Monique Hanis, a spokeswoman for the Solar Energy Industries Association. A solar home system today costs $25,000 to $40,000 before tax credits and other subsidies, Hanis said.
"Once you have the technological leadership, once you have the innovative manufacturing process that drives the cost down ... we can make more," Deng said.
Deng's work is in thin-film photovoltaic solar, an area in which there's been a great deal of innovation in recent years. Thin-film is an alternative to the crystalline silicon solar cells commercialized in the U.S. in the 1950s, the kind typically seen powering highway signs and the most widely used solar panels today.
Thin-film cells cost less to make. They're essentially a layer of semiconductor material on a thin base of metal, plastic or glass.
Xunlight's thin-film cells are light and flexible, making them easier to install and ship.
The amount of material used in the active layers of thin-film solar cells is a tiny fraction of what goes into a conventional solar cell, so the material costs are much lower, said Joe Verrengia, a spokesman for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is working with companies and doing its own work on thin-film research and development.
Xunlight grew with the help of grants, loans and business help from Ohio's Department of Development.
Ohio has one of the most ambitious renewable-energy requirements of any state: Twenty-five percent of its electricity must be produced by renewable sources by 2025. Of that total of 6,000 megawatts, 800 must be solar. The policy will make Ohio one of the top markets for solar, said Nadeane Howard, the director of the Energy Resources Division of the Ohio Department of Development.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/14/1528746/us-firms-working-to-lower-cost.html
By RENEE SCHOOF
McClatchy Newspapers
TOLEDO, Ohio -- One piece of the American effort to find a way to make solar energy cheap enough that everyone will want it is unfolding in a modest redbrick building in this Midwestern city once known as one of the nation's top makers of glass.
Xunming Deng, a physicist, started a solar company in Ohio eight years ago as a spinoff from his research at the University of Toledo. He's attracted $40 million in venture capital, and designed and purchased manufacturing equipment. He now thinks that his Xunlight Corp. is on the brink of profitability and fast growth. It expects certification this spring and is getting ready to ramp up production.
Deng's story reflects one of the innovative approaches that U.S. thin-film photovoltaic solar companies are taking to bring down the costs of solar installations for homes, businesses and utilities. All aim for a mass market with economies of scale that make solar energy comparable in price to energy from fossil fuels.
Several of these companies are in Toledo, part of the legacy of the late Harold McMaster, a glass innovator who started a solar company that later became First Solar, which now employs about 1,000 people just outside Toledo.
"The way I envision it is that someday solar will penetrate the market and go to everybody's home," much the way cell phones and personal computers did, Deng said. "I feel that one day our energy platform will be much more renewable, and we want to be a big part of it."
The widespread use of solar that Deng envisions could help the U.S. reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases from coal and natural gas. It also could help provide clean energy that electrifies vehicles, reducing the country's $350 billion annual bill for foreign oil.
Although solar energy today provides only 1 percent of U.S. electricity, it's growing quickly, adding jobs in factories such as Deng's and at companies that install the equipment.
"Everybody's trying to get the upfront costs down," said Monique Hanis, a spokeswoman for the Solar Energy Industries Association. A solar home system today costs $25,000 to $40,000 before tax credits and other subsidies, Hanis said.
"Once you have the technological leadership, once you have the innovative manufacturing process that drives the cost down ... we can make more," Deng said.
Deng's work is in thin-film photovoltaic solar, an area in which there's been a great deal of innovation in recent years. Thin-film is an alternative to the crystalline silicon solar cells commercialized in the U.S. in the 1950s, the kind typically seen powering highway signs and the most widely used solar panels today.
Thin-film cells cost less to make. They're essentially a layer of semiconductor material on a thin base of metal, plastic or glass.
Xunlight's thin-film cells are light and flexible, making them easier to install and ship.
The amount of material used in the active layers of thin-film solar cells is a tiny fraction of what goes into a conventional solar cell, so the material costs are much lower, said Joe Verrengia, a spokesman for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is working with companies and doing its own work on thin-film research and development.
Xunlight grew with the help of grants, loans and business help from Ohio's Department of Development.
Ohio has one of the most ambitious renewable-energy requirements of any state: Twenty-five percent of its electricity must be produced by renewable sources by 2025. Of that total of 6,000 megawatts, 800 must be solar. The policy will make Ohio one of the top markets for solar, said Nadeane Howard, the director of the Energy Resources Division of the Ohio Department of Development.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/14/1528746/us-firms-working-to-lower-cost.html
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