It's my understanding that a manufacturing solar panel plant is being built
in Michigan that will manufacture flexible sheets of solar panels using a
printing press method.
This should help to reduce costs dramatically and allow covering roofs of
homes and other buildings to collect solar energy while eliminating the need
for shingles and other roofing materials. It should be very cost-effective.
Stan Doore
----- Original Message -----
From: Pat Naughtin
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2010 5:23 AM
Subject: [USMA:47128] Solar costs
Dear All (and especially Stan Jakuba),
Those of you who are interested in the cost of solar energy might be
interested in the article at
http://industry.bnet.com/energy/10003903/ldk-solars-acquisition-strategy-not-a-bright-future
where they say:
Additionally, too much industry capacity coming on-line in recent years has
collided with slowing demand for solar cells, culminating in dramatic falloffs
in component prices across the value supply chain. Aside from a penny or two
fall in wafer conversion costs (US$0.32 per watt in 4Q:09), LDK has yet to
wring out any of the margin or competitive advantages it envisioned with its
vertical supply integration strategy:
In the fourth-quarter of 2009, LDK reported wafer average selling prices
(ASP) of US$0.83 per watt, down from US$2.24 per watt in 2007. The significant
decline in wafer prices forced the company to write down the carrying values of
its inventories by almost US$500 million in the last two years.
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, that you can obtain from
http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
Geelong, Australia
Phone: 61 3 5241 2008
Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped
thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric
system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each
year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides
services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for
commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and
in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA,
NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See
http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat
at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters'
newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
