After decades, a solar pioneer (Stan Ovshinsky) sees spark in sales

[jpak]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06332/741837-28.stm

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Stanford R. Ovshinsky has spent 40 years -- and millions of dollars in backing from various partners -- pursuing his dream. He wanted to build a huge machine that would make giant sheets of material that can generate solar power.

"I said we are going to make it by the mile," he recalls. "Nobody believed me, not even in my own company."

Today, Mr. Ovshinsky, 84 years old, finds himself running his factory at full capacity and overwhelmed with orders. His company, Energy Conversion Devices Inc., is the largest U.S.-owned maker of photovoltaic materials, which convert sunlight to electricity. The company is a pioneer in an exploding global industry selling $15 billion a year of what's called "PV."

The company's mammoth machine extends the length of a football field. It runs much like a printing press, spooling out thin sheets of the PV material, which can be used on roofs of homes or businesses. As energy costs rise, along with concerns about global warming, PV is in demand.

<more>

[Hand]

1. Here's a link that works.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06332/741837-28.stm

A piece of the headline intruded into yr. URL. Great article, BTW! :hi:

[jpak]

3. Thanks!

n/t

[mom cat]

5. Thanks. I just spent some time on their site:

http://www.uni-solar.com/

I want!

[phantom power]

2. link is broken

[phantom power]

4. Astonishing. In that entire article...

there was not one mention of cost/watt, or watts/area, etc. What is the matter with these reporters?

[skids]

10. Yeah. FWIW they are just passing Si costwise now...

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Alternative_Energy/2006-10-01/Easy_Solar_Power

Actually with these panels it's a bit tricky to just do a $/wP wP/m2 comparison because IIRC these are the type that have a different load profile -- they take in light from significantly larger angles and capture more diffuse light so the actual amount of energy returned on cloudy days or for fixed panels (which these are generally) per "peak watt" is greater.

w/m2-wise I believe Si still blows all the thin films away, but for many that is a nonissue.

[hvn_nbr_2]

12. You want reporters to have good hair, perfect teeth, AND have a clue? nt

[eppur_se_muova]

6. I remember seeing a documentary about him years ago. A shame he had to wait

so long -- not everyone lives to be 84.

"Support for solar took a nosedive in 1982, when the Reagan Administration cut the government's solar research budget in half, sending entrepreneurs and scientists to other fields." RR has so much to answer for. :mad:

[MountainLaurel]

8. No doubt he does

If there's a god, RR is smoking turds in hell at this very minute.

[Strelnikov_]

7. One Of The Stars Of 'Who Killed The Electric Car' n/t

[MelissaB]

9. That was a fantastic article.

:kick:

[rman]

11. Many large corporations, including oil corps, and the Chinese State

are investing heavily in solar tech, solar tech stocks are going up.

Small surprise, since it's not a secret that global oil production rate is flat since 2005.

But going by what governments say, there's no impending oil crisis.

[happydreams]

13. That concerns me. This could be an attempt by

the oil companies to derail alternatives. Remember what happened to mass transit after the auto industry bough heavy into them.

[rman]

14. The concern is understandable, but there's a difference

with the car industry / public transport situation.

Increasingly, solar and other alternative energy techs will not be "alternatives" but they will be the only option. Oil is running out; mass transport wasn't running out.

[happydreams]

17. I don't agree with this "Peak Oil" construct.

In Alberta Canada they are tapping "Oil Sands". Estimates according to CBS "60 Minutes" is that there is more oil there than in Saudi Arabia. These sultans of oil sleaze are trying to destroy alternatives IMO.

That is why the Bush oil power nexus must be destroyed and fossil fuels nationalized wherever possible.

[rman]

18. tapping tar sand etc is a symptom of peak oil:

peak oil is not about there being no more oil - it is about the decline of oil production rate. Just look up the productivity numbers on Canada's tar sand and compare it with a daily global consumption of 80 million barrels and growing.
Heavy crude, deep water drilling, tar sand, oil shale: all slow and expensive. IEA numbers show global oil production has been flat since 2005 - that's after production has been keeping pace with increasing demand ever since oil started to be used on an industrial scale.

[happydreams]

19. 100 years ago it was argued that the world couldn't have

more than a couple of billion people in it because there would'nt be enough land to sustain them. A ten fold increase in the production rate ended that prognosis.

[rman]

20. Problem is the potential for increasing production rate is finite

As i pointed out in my previous post, production rate has been keeping pace with increasing demand pretty much since the industrialization - up until recently. There's good reason why oil corporations are only now starting to exploit low yield, high cost sources such as deep water fields, tar sand and oil shale (you have to actually heat up the ground to make the shale liquid so that it can be pumped out).

It's not just oil - many metal ores to have become several times more expensive than they were some 10 years ago. The price of copper has quadrupled over the past two years.

TFC Commodity Charts
Copper High Grade (HG, Comex)
Weekly Price Chart
http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/CP/W/?saveprefs=t&xshowdata=t&xCharttype=b&xhide_specs=f&xhide_analysis=f&xhide_survey=t&xhide_news=f

http://www.equinoxminerals.com/whycopper.asp
Copper prices are currently at all-time highs. Copper prices have increased from US$0.63/lb Cu when Equinox acquired Lumwana, and averaged US$1.85/lb Cu in October-2005 when the Lumwana Difinitive Feasibility Study (“DFS”) was completed. Copper prices are currently over US$2.30/lb (Feb 2006).

http://www.infomine.com/companies-properties/infodbweb/News.asp?SearchID=22306
August 24, 2005
...Equinox acquired 100% of the Lumwana copper project in January...

[Javaman]

15. Is this the same guy that was in "who killed the electric car?"?

If it was, this guy knows his stuff.

[Jokinomx]

16. United Solar Ovonics is currently building the first of six plants

in my hometown of Greenville Michigan.... and we need the jobs... Electrolux moved to Mexico and 3000 jobs were lost...Montcalm county has the highest unemployment rate in Michigan.

United Solar hopes to have the first plant up and running early next year. The catch... you need to be a certified technician. The local community college has started a training program and will be starting a new class next month. They are accepting 40 students for the 15 month program and only 29 have signed up so far. I think there is quite abit of math and it is scaring off some of the older workers that are laid off.

:kick:

[amandabeech]

21. Time for a math refresher course for those who've been out of.

school for some time. I'll bet that some people would sign up who don't intend to take the solar plant course.

Start the math course now, so that the older workers will be ready and confident for the training program that will start after next month's.