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Affordable Solar Within the Next Five Years

By Solar energy | December 3, 2008

A solar cell made from a monocrystalline silic...
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Affordable Solar Within the Next Five Years

Making solar energy affordable to use for my home is my current goal. The current cost of installed solar, running about $10 per Kilowatt, takes my breath away.

Currently we are in the energy conservation mode at our house, trying to reduce our daily kilowatt usage to the bare minimum for comfort and efficiency. When I find that minimum, I’ll know how much solar energy I need to accommodate our needs.

I confess, even with the Incentive Tax Credits, I wonder when I will afford the solar.

But IBM just issued a report that gives us hope.

In the next five years, solar energy will be an affordable option for you and your neighbors. Until now, the materials and the process of producing solar cells to convert into solar energy have been too costly for widespread adoption. But now this is changing with the creation of “thin-film” solar cells, a new type of cost-efficient solar cell that can be 100 times thinner than silicon-wafer cells and produced at a lower cost. These new thin-film solar cells can be “printed” and arranged on a flexible backing, suitable for not only the tops, but also the sides of buildings, tinted windows, cell phones, notebook computers, cars, and even clothing.

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