Dear friends,
The below
hope-inspiring article in San Francisco's leading newspaper shows that innovations
in solar energy production using nanotechnology can fulfill most of the electrical
needs of the US. So why was this vital news not reported in major media
across the country? And in light of the ongoing energy crisis, why isn't the
government pouring huge amounts of funding into rapidly developing this exciting
technology which can free us of our dependence on oil from the Middle East?
The Detroit
News recently ran a short article on the winner of an annual 2,500 mile
solar-powered car race, yet conveniently failed to mention that using the
power of the sun alone, the car averaged
46.2 mpg! CNN
reported on a eco-car that needs just two gallons to travel 25,000 miles!
Why aren't these astonishing facts making top news headlines? We recently
posted an
email which provided an abundance of reliable evidence that the perceived
energy crisis is largely a fabrication of those who stand to reap grand rewards
from the escalating price of oil.
If you take
the time to explore our New
Energy Information Center, you will very likely conclude that we have
long had the technology needed to make oil and gasoline obsolete, but powerful
political and economic forces have done everything possible to prevent these
technologies from moving forward. Please help to spread the word that we
now have the technology to transform energy production around the world.
Join in calling on our politicians to adequately fund the advancement of these
wonderful new technologies. Together, we can and will build
a brighter future for us all.
With best
wishes,
Fred Burks for the WantToKnow.info
Team
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/11/BUG7IDL1AF1.DTL
As solar gets smaller, its future gets brighter
Nanotechnology could
turn rooftops into a sea of power-generating stations
Paul Carlstrom, Special
to The Chronicle
Monday, July 11, 2005
Investors
along Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park are pouring money into solar nanotech startups,
hoping that thinking small will translate into big profits.
Both inventors
and investors are betting that flexible sheets of tiny solar cells used to
harness the sun's strength will ultimately provide a cheaper, more efficient
source of energy than the current smorgasbord of alternative and fossil fuels.
Nanosys
and Nanosolar in Palo Alto -- along with Konarka in Lowell, Mass. -- say their
research will result in thin rolls of highly efficient light-collecting plastics
spread across rooftops or built into building materials.
These rolls,
the companies say, will be able to provide energy for prices as low as the
electricity currently provided by utilities, which averages $1 per watt.
Other uses of nanotechnology foreseen by Konarka, Nanosolar and Nanosys include
form-fitting plastic batteries for electronic devices like cell phones and
laptops.
While all three companies provide prototypes for large corporate research
labs and government agencies, company representatives and investors are reticent
to predict when nanotechnology-powered solar systems will be commercially
available. Industry watchers, however, say that achieving mass production
of these products may take five years or longer.
"We
take the long view, although we're not averse to having products very quickly,"
said Bryan Roberts, general partner at Venrock Associates in Menlo Park, a
leading Nanosys investor. "Whenever you're developing a novel technology
platform, you're looking at a four- to six-year time frame rather than a three-
to four-year time frame."
Major investments
Despite the lack of commercial product availability, Konarka, Nanosolar and
Nanosys have collectively raised more than $120 million since 2001, the year
all three companies were founded.
Recent investments include $7 million in debt financing for Konarka in June,
making its total funding to date $38.5 million. Nanosolar recently announced
more financial support in a Series B round of funding that secured $20 million
in May. With previous investments of $7.25 million, it has secured a total
of $27.25 million.
Both Konarka and Nanosolar have said they plan to use the money for new research
and development facilities.
Nanosys, which cited poor market conditions as the reason for withdrawing
its IPO in August, has raised $55 million to date. The company's last round
of funding in April 2003 secured $30 million.
Venture capitalist excitement for these new technologies reflects growth
in the solar energy market as whole, say industry experts.
"The technology is maturing, and the industry is maturing. British Petroleum,
Shell and the oil companies are all in this field," said David Wooley,
vice president of the nonprofit Energy Foundation in San Francisco, a research
group funded by major charitable trusts but not affiliated with utilities
or energy producers.
Costs must
be reduced
A study released by the Energy Foundation in March suggests that the United
States could produce 2,900 new megawatts of solar power by 2010 -- enough
to power 500,000 homes -- if the cost is significantly reduced.
Solar energy ranges between $4 and $5 per watt. The report suggests market
expansion will require $2 to $2.50. If the price breakthrough occurs, says
Wooley, the report's assumed price structure represents a $6.6 billion annual
market opportunity.
The Energy
Foundation report also says that solar energy could furnish much of the nation's
electricity if available residential and commercial rooftops were fully utilized.
According to the Energy Foundation, using available rooftop space could provide
710,000 megawatts across the United States, whose current electrical capacity
is 950,000 megawatts.
"The market is obviously huge, demand is huge. Besides, (alternative
energy) is imperative in the world we live in," said Bill Gurley, a general
partner at Benchmark Capital in Menlo Park, an early investor in Nanosolar.
As for recent growth in solar energy, Paula Mints, a senior analyst at the
technology research firm of Strategies Unlimited in Mountain View, says that
14,000 photovoltaic megawatts were sold last year, representing 54 percent
growth in the industry.
Interest
from VC investors
Mints says that VC interest in new energy technologies represents a positive
development.
"It's very healthy for the industry. They (venture capitalists) see
the growth and the possibilities," she said.
However, Mints also cautions against expecting immediate changes in the way
energy is produced. She cites the long development history of conventional
solar cells.
"It took 20 to 25 years to commercialize (conventional) photovoltaics,"
she said.
High production costs are among the reasons solar energy hasn't become a
major source of electricity.
The black, glasslike photovoltaic cells that make up most solar panels are
usually composed of crystalline silicon, which requires clean-room manufacturing
facilities free of dust and airborne microbes.
Silicon is also in short supply and increasingly expensive to produce, so
high manufacturing costs are the main reason behind high wattage prices.
Long payback
time
As a result, the cost of panel installation typically equals four to five
years of expensive energy before production costs are recovered and systems
begin paying for themselves.
With nanotechnology, tiny solar cells can be printed onto flexible, very
thin light-retaining materials, bypassing the cost of silicon production.
"Silicon is very capital-intensive. You don't need a clean room for
plastic power where capital costs are one-tenth of silicon," said Raj
Atluru, managing director at the venture capitalist firm of Draper Fisher
Jurvetson in Menlo Park, a major investor in Konarka.
Konarka, Nanosys and Nanosolar say their solar technology will reduce the
time it will take consumers to recover production and installation costs to
a matter of months.
In addition to being able to manufacture photovoltaic cells more quickly
through printing, the companies also say that manipulating materials 100,000
times smaller than the width of a human hair will provide more light- collecting
capabilities.
Each printed nanostructure solar cell would act as an autonomous solar collector,
and sheets of these products would have more surface area to gather light
than conventional photovoltaic cells.
The companies
also say that the printed rolls of solar cells would be lighter, more resilient
and flexible than silicon photovoltaics.
A rooftop
opportunity
If the technical hurdles can be cleared, the biggest money will be found
atop buildings.
According to Matthew Nordan, vice president of research at New York's Lux
Research, "The ultimate prize is rooftop distribution applications,"
in which residential and commercial buildings would generate most of their
own power.
The companies envision mass production of flexible plastics that would conform
to the shape and pitch of rooftops or would be imprinted onto building materials
like tile and siding.
"Flexibility
allows you to develop new form factors. Why not integrate solar cells into,
say, a Spanish tile?" said Nanosys spokesman Stephen Empedocles.
It remains unclear, however, who would install nanotechnology-based solar
components if they become commercially available.
"There's no channel to the market," said Nordan, who sees a fragmented
solar installation market made up of numerous contractors, which makes adoption
of any technology difficult.
Nordan also sees obstacles in transmitting solar energy from rooftop collection
sites back to electrical grids and other buildings not wired with photovoltaics.
Distribution
an obstacle
"The problem is distribution. Nanomaterials could provide a way to transmit
energy as well as capture it."
Until the distribution issue is solved, Nordan says, solar energy will not
be able to meet its potential of supplying vast amounts of power.
Analysts like Nordan and Mints say that while rooftops are the most attractive
areas for investors, nanomaterial solar energy may first be implemented on
mobile devices like cell phones and laptop computers.
Contracts
from the military
These applications have smaller power requirements than buildings, and military
research contracts at Konarka, Nanosys and Nanosolar may pave the way for
commercial availability of solar batteries for communications devices.
"Price is no object for the military, and they need power on the go,"
said Nordan. "Besides, the mobile-phone industry is driven by new features."
All three companies rely upon government contracts in addition to private
funding. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has been the most generous.
Konarka has a $6 million grant, and Nanosolar has received $10.3 million.
Nanosys' $9.4 million in grants comes from that agency, as well as the Department
of Energy and the Navy, among others -- although not all of this research
is solar-related.
Industry
watchers like Wooley of the Energy Foundation say that some kind of government
assistance is necessary to make alternative sources of energy viable.
"The (solar) industry has grown and expanded through incentives. The
technology doesn't need government support forever, but it's at a crucial
point," he said.
Investors, however, are quick to distinguish between grants and regulations
mandating alternative forms of energy.
"The bet was not made with the regulation market," said Gurley
of Benchmark Capital.
Problems
with government
Atluru of
Draper Fisher Jurvetson concurs. "Our view is that government can
cause big problems, and it is the entrepreneurs who will make the big changes."
So which way will solar energy go? Atluru said that just as there are different
ways to get electricity, the same may hold true for solar energy.
"There's opportunities in traditional silicon photovoltaics, and that's
really interesting, and there are companies like Konarka. There's room in
the market for all these companies. It's still early days for these startups,"
he said.
Wooley of the Energy Foundation cautiously agrees.
"What we see is similar to the trajectory for wind energy, where it
went from a small-scale industry to a large-scale industry.
"We think
the solar industry could see the same growth this decade the wind industry
saw in the '90s," he said.
Shrinking
solar, expanding profit
Konarka, Nanosolar
and Nanosys say that nanotechnology could make the price of electricity less
expensive per watt.
Current
cost of solar energy, per watt: $4-$5
Average
cost of energy from traditional fossil fuel sources, per watt: $1
Estimated
cost of energy from nanotech solar panels, per watt: $2
Total energy-generating
capacity of the United States: 950,000 megawatts
Potential
total rooftop solar energy capacity in the United States: 710, 000 megawatts
Source: Energy Foundation
Page E - 1
