Solar panels offer alternative energy

A new high-efficiency, low-cost solar technology will provide an alternative power source similar in cost as traditionally generated electricity.

The technology was developed by Colorado State University professor W.S. Sampath, who has spent the last 16 years perfecting his discovery and waiting for the solar market to mature.

Produced at less than $1 per watt, the panels will dramatically reduce the cost of generating solar electricity.

Sampath developed a continuous, automated manufacturing process for solar panels using glass coating with a cadmium telluride thin film instead of the standard high-cost crystalline silicon. Because the process produces high efficiency devices (ranging from 11 to 13 percent) at a high rate and yield, it can be done much more cheaply than with existing technologies. The cost to the consumer could be as low as $2 per watt, about half the current cost of solar panels, and competitive with cost of power from the electrical grid in many parts of the world. And this solar technology does not need to be tied to a grid.

Sampath formed AVA Solar in January to commercialize the technology. A new 200-megawatt factory in Fort Collins, Colo., will start production by the end of 2008.

“The key to expanding the U.S. market is to lower manufacturing costs so more people can afford the technology,” Sampath said.

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For more: AVA Solar, (970) 472-1580; www.avasolar.com.