Q&As with SunPower CEO and Sharp solar exec
Red Herring is on a roll this month. In this article, the magazine has a Q&A with Thomas Werner, chief executive of SunPower Corp., which since its $18 IPO on Nov. 16 has seen its share price more than double — thanks in part because of strong demand for solar PV products worldwide and the recent California solar initiative. One of Werner’s most interesting comments? He expects to see “price parity” on a price per watt basis between solar power and fossil fuel power within the next five to 10 years.
There’s also a Q&A with Ron Kenedi, head of Sharp’s solar operations in North and South America. “We’re doing a lot of things to save silicon — scrap, thinner cells, and we’re looking at all our processes. We expect to see a pretty good savings in silicon,” says Kenedi. “In the last 20 years, thin-film has been the hope. We think it is getting closer and closer, and we think in two or three years it will become mainstream. Concentrators also make a lot of sense for large fields. We expect that will happen in three to five years.”
On a side note, check out this entry on The Energy Blog regarding Daystar Technologies and its ambitious plans to compete with traditional power generation using its solar PV technology and manufacturing approach. You figure with so many of these anxious upstarts making such promises, somebody’s gotta deliver at some point…
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
February 4th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
In this discussion, as in so many lately, I see reference to the looming shortage in silicon and its impact on the solar industry. I am wondering if Tyler, or anyone else out there, knows who the major silicon suppliers are, and whether investing in one or more of them is a plausible play.
Peter
http://clearthinkblog.blogspot.com/
February 4th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Good question. I’ll poke around and report back.