Making A Cheaper Solar Panel

Solaria is a startup company based in Fremont California. It intends to cut the cost of manufacturing solar panels by decreasing the amount of the most expensive material required; silicon. It has recently started shipping its first panels. This spring, the company is going to begin production of solar panels at a factory built to produce 25 MW of solar panels every year.

Currently, the high costs for the type of silicone that is used in photovoltaics have driven up the price of conventional solar panels. Soleria’s solar panel cells generate about 90% as much power as a conventional solar panel, while using just half as much silicon.

Usually, the silicon in a solar panel covers the entire surface, collecting light from as much area as is possible. But Solaria is able to slice the silicon into thin strips and places them so that they only cover about half of the panel’s area. A clear molded plastic cover collects light from the entire panel and channels it to the strips of silicon.

This method saves a lot of money because the total cost of the molded plastic and the additional manufacturing steps are still lower than the cost of the silicon that would normally be used in conventional solar panels. They also reduce costs by using existing manufacturing equipment that has already been developed for the semiconductor industry. These first products could be economical enough compete with panels provided by much larger companies. In successive generations, the cost could be as much as 30% less than their competitors.

Unfortunately, silicon prices are high now. But the element is abundant on this planet and there are already new facilities being built to produce more refined silicon. Soleri plans to implement even more cost-saving measures to remain competitive.

Such measures are clearly possible. For example in a conventional solar panel, the wires for collecting the electricity are placed on top of the cell, where they inherently block some of the incoming sunlight. Soleria could place wires in between the strips of silicon were no light is blocked. Because these wires wouldn’t have to be made then to avoid blocking the existing sunlight, they could be sized to collect the electricity in a more efficient manner.