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SolarCity Shows Off Its New Modules; Now It Has to Manufacture Them
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/542051/solarcity-shows-off-its-new-modules-now-it-has-to-manufacture-them/[font face=Serif][font size=5]SolarCity Shows Off Its New Modules; Now It Has to Manufacture Them[/font]
[font size=4]The leading installer of rooftop solar panels says it has achieved record efficiencies with its panels.[/font]
By David Rotman on October 2, 2015
[font size=3]The leading installer of residential solar panels in the United States, SolarCity, boasts that its new type of modules being made in a small pilot plant have achieved record efficiencies of 22.04 percent, surpassing rival SunPower’s efficiencies of 21.5 percent and far exceeding the 16 percent efficiencies of commodity silicon solar panels. Though the results are impressive, the announcement also raises questions about whether SolarCity can successfully transition from being a solar panel installer to a manufacturer, especially one making a radically new type of solar technology.
The announcement, made at an event today in New York City, is hardly a surprise. The company, which installs 34 percent of rooftop solar panels in this country, has previously talked about achieving such efficiencies with its new technology, which it acquired when it bought a small startup called Silevo in 2014. Nevertheless, the tests of its products at a 100-megawatt pilot plant are important because it’s the technology that will be used in SolarCity’s gigafactory being built in Buffalo, New York. That plant is scheduled to begin operations late next year and will make 9,000 to 10,000 of the panels a day when it is fully operating.
Given that the company can make its highly efficient solar panels relatively cheaply, says Peter Rive, SolarCity cofounder and chief technology officer, the module is “in my opinion, the best on the planet.”
The demand for residential solar panels has been booming in recent years, driven by generous federal tax credits and rules in most states that allow owners of the panels to sell excess electricity to grid operators at retail prices. But those incentives could be diminishing—federal tax credits on solar installations are scheduled to drop from 30 percent to 10 percent for businesses at the end of next year—and SolarCity’s new technology is key to the company’s strategy for surviving that change.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]The leading installer of rooftop solar panels says it has achieved record efficiencies with its panels.[/font]
By David Rotman on October 2, 2015
[font size=3]The leading installer of residential solar panels in the United States, SolarCity, boasts that its new type of modules being made in a small pilot plant have achieved record efficiencies of 22.04 percent, surpassing rival SunPower’s efficiencies of 21.5 percent and far exceeding the 16 percent efficiencies of commodity silicon solar panels. Though the results are impressive, the announcement also raises questions about whether SolarCity can successfully transition from being a solar panel installer to a manufacturer, especially one making a radically new type of solar technology.
The announcement, made at an event today in New York City, is hardly a surprise. The company, which installs 34 percent of rooftop solar panels in this country, has previously talked about achieving such efficiencies with its new technology, which it acquired when it bought a small startup called Silevo in 2014. Nevertheless, the tests of its products at a 100-megawatt pilot plant are important because it’s the technology that will be used in SolarCity’s gigafactory being built in Buffalo, New York. That plant is scheduled to begin operations late next year and will make 9,000 to 10,000 of the panels a day when it is fully operating.
Given that the company can make its highly efficient solar panels relatively cheaply, says Peter Rive, SolarCity cofounder and chief technology officer, the module is “in my opinion, the best on the planet.”
The demand for residential solar panels has been booming in recent years, driven by generous federal tax credits and rules in most states that allow owners of the panels to sell excess electricity to grid operators at retail prices. But those incentives could be diminishing—federal tax credits on solar installations are scheduled to drop from 30 percent to 10 percent for businesses at the end of next year—and SolarCity’s new technology is key to the company’s strategy for surviving that change.
…[/font][/font]
