Tubular sunshine: Economist

Oct 9th 2008
From The Economist print edition

A new sort of solar panel is less fussy about where the sun shines from
SOLAR power should be a cheap and simple way of making electricity, but like any technology the practicalities tend to get in the way. Even if the sun does come out the panels may not face in the right direction. Then there is the cost, which can exceed $40,000 for a household system—more than half of which is accounted for by installation. This week, however, a Californian company launched a new type of solar panel that tries to overcome these problems.

Standard solar panels are assembled from arrays of photovoltaic cells made from silicon, like computer chips. These cells absorb photons in light and transfer their energy to electrons, which form an electrical circuit.

Solyndra, based in Fremont, is taking a different approach. It is one of a number of firms, including First Solar, Nanosolar and Global Solar, using different materials to produce the photovoltaic effect and building them in extremely thin layers, almost like printing on paper. As these films use less material they are cheaper to produce, not least because they can be deposited on bases like metal, glass and plastic.

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