--- Terry Blanton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Our good friend Greg Watson of SMOT fame has beat you to the punch:
>
> http://www.greenandgoldenergy.com.au/
>
> Word is that he is making $$A.
>
> Terry
Hardly. Watson is using conventional compression molded acrylic fresnel lenses.
The high tensile strength film fresnel lenses I make cost about 1% as much, and
my production capacity dwarfs that of all other fresnel manufacturers combined.
Plus Watson has that nutty design. (Just my opinion on that one.)
In any solar concentrator system, the concentrator optics are almost always the
most expensive component. That's why I went ahead and made a fresnel lens array
at my own expense that is designed to work with the most efficient concentrator
photovoltaic. I just wanted to show that it could be done on a large scale at
very low cost.
There is no point in continuing with this project if Nanosolar's CIGS panels
are cost effective. Regardless of the calculations discussed in this thread, I
would like to point out that the use of indium as indium tin oxide (ITO) in LCD
displays has already caused indium to increase in price by a factor of 25 in 4
years. Given that LCD displays use ITO in a layer less than 1/10th micron, this
is very sobering. In addition, Nanosolar already admits that the efficiency of
their panels is quite a bit less than predicted.
A price of $1000/kg for indium is used as an example of an outrageous cost, but
frankly if Nanosolar joins the flat panel LCD business as a consumer of this
metal, indium could blow through that price and far beyond in a matter of
months. I haven't checked on gallium lately, but these are both very rare
elements, available only as byproducts.
I didn't start my fresnel project seriously as way to get into the solar energy
business. I just started it in case nothing else works out very well. Nanosolar
is a great big well-capitalized enterprise and I hope it succeeds, leaving me
to do the other things I was already doing.
M.
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