[TWIAR] Discovery may spur cheap solar power

[Greg Williams]

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- A major European chip maker said this week it
had discovered new ways to produce solar cells which will generate
electricity twenty times cheaper than today's solar panels. 

STMicroelectronics, Europe's largest semiconductor maker, said that,
by the end of next year, it expected to have made the first stable
prototypes of the new cells, which could then be put into production. 

Most of today's solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity,
are produced with expensive silicon, the same material used in most
semiconductors. 

The French-Italian company expects cheaper organic materials such as
plastics to bring down the price of producing energy. Over a typical
20-year life span of a solar cell, electrical power production costs
could drop 20 times compared to the current rate. 

The new solar cells could even be cheaper than electricity generated
by burning fossil fuels such as oil and gas, said Salvo Coffa, who
heads ST's research group that is developing the technology. 

"This would revolutionize the field of solar energy generation," he
said. 

ST's trick is to use materials that are less efficient in producing
energy from sunlight but which are extremely cheap. 

Coffa said the materials should be able to turn at least 10 percent
of the sun's energy into power, compared with some 20 percent for
today's expensive silicon-based cells. 

"We believe we can demonstrate 10 percent efficiency by the end of
2004," Coffa said. 

Following that, ST and others would need to develop production
technologies to make solar cells and panels in large quantities to
achieve the $0.20 per watt target, he said. 

"Our target is fixed at $0.20," said Coffa, who expects no major
technological difficulties in going from prototypes to mass-produced
commercial products. 

Renewable energy is an essential part of research for ST, which says
its chip and material expertise can be used to develop future solar
cells and fuel cells. 

ST said three weeks ago it had found a new way to produce tiny yet
extremely efficient fuel cells that could power a mobile phone for 20
days. 

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/biztech/10/02/solar.cells.reut/index.html

Webmail Provided by Lock-Net Internet Services: www.lock-net.com