Monday, May 28, 2007

NEWS: Solar Panels Improve


I do some very interesting work with Suzan Bailey from LIVSIMPLY: an Eco Path. This business helps you to make the best environmental decisions concerning buildings, home and lifestyle.
livsimply.com.au
Suzan forwarded me some info on new assessment by the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C., and the Prometheus Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
This says that production of Photovolatic (solar panels for electricity) cells :

"
has risen sixfold since 2000 and grew 41 percent in 2006 alone. Although grid-connected solar capacity still provides less than 1 percent of the world's electricity, it increased nearly 50 percent in 2006, to 5,000 megawatts"

It seems this increase in uptake combined with planned new mega-enormous production of polysilicon, which will be used in more efficient ways, will probably make the purchase of photovoltaic panels much less of a financial burden.

"The conventional energy industry will be surprised by how quickly solar PV becomes mainstream—cheap enough to provide carbon-free electricity on rooftops, while also meeting the energy needs of hundreds of millions of poor people who currently lack electricity," Sawin says.

This is great news.
I just wonder however about the production methods to be used.
It looks like all these cheap panels will be produced in China to keep costs down. Does this mean also that unsustainable and un-ethical production methods will be used? Apparently photovoltaics already use half the worlds supply of
polysilicon... after watching the "Crude" oil documentary the other night, I wonder is this material going to be available in the long-term? How are we sourcing and forming it? hummmmmmmmmmmmmm