BP Solar Closes Thin Film Operations [RE-wrenches]

[EH Roy]

Wrenches,

The material cost per square foot of collector is less with thin film than
crystalline but that must be balanced against an increased installation and
mounting cost per watt.

I have not installed any Millennia modules but I think there are some
wrenches out there who have had glass breakage problems and pyrotechnic
problems with Millennia modules. I'll let them speak if they choose to.

E. H. Roy
Solar Works, Inc.
64 Main Street
Montpelier, VT 05602
1-800-339-7804 ext. 306
ehroy at solar-works.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Smiley [mailto:Eric_Smiley at bcit.ca]
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 1:31 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: BP Solar Closes Thin Film Operations [RE-wrenches]


As the price of PV continues to drop, the other system costs become more
important. We know, of course, that the lower efficiency of thin film
results in a larger mounting structure and greater labour costs.

The roofing products and other building integrated products, on the
other hand, have a bit of an advantage because the roofing or glazing
they are replacing and the labour to install the roof or glass is priced
in dollars per square foot. The lower efficiency of thin film means a
lower cost per square foot and the "premium" for replacing a
conventional roof with solar roofing may be less than mounting the
modules on top of a conventional roof.

But building integrated PV is not a significant market and one can
understand why the Millennia modules had a tough time gaining market
share against more compact modules, irregardless of reliability or
lifespan expectations.

However, considering the bottleneck for PV manufaturers in getting
enough PV quality silicon and the tendency for a mass produced item's
costs to be dominated by material costs, thin film isn't in the
dumpster.

Who knows though. Spheral solar is almost in production <
http://www.spheralsolar.com >. Dye sensitized cells, which don't require
clean rooms, are already for sale as toys. <http://www.sta.com.au/>.
Polymer semiconductors and nano-rod polymer devices are being used in
micro-chips and have been demonstrated for PV
<http://www.lbl.gov/Tech-Transfer/collaboration/techs/lbnl1810.html>.

Eric Smiley
Project Leader
Photovoltaic Energy Applied Research, Technology Centre
British Columbia Institute of Technology
Burnaby Campus

NE25 - 3700 Willingdon Avenue
Burnaby, British Columbia
Canada V5G 3H2

phone: 604.432.8657    fax: 604.436.0286
esmiley at bcit.ca             www.tc.bcit.ca

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