{"id":519027,"date":"2010-04-07T09:44:14","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T13:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gereports.com\/?p=5641"},"modified":"2010-04-07T09:44:14","modified_gmt":"2010-04-07T13:44:14","slug":"from-the-lab-%e2%80%98why-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-take-solar-seriously%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/519027","title":{"rendered":"From the lab: \u2018Why it\u2019s time to take solar seriously\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span>We\u2019ve recently written about GE\u2019s accelerated push into next-generation \u201cthin film\u201d solar technology. In the post below \u2013 excerpted from tech blog greenbiz.com today — Danielle Merfeld, who is director of Solar Technologies at GE Global Research<\/a>, tackles the topic of \u201cWhy it\u2019s time to take solar seriously<\/a>.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

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\nFlex time:<\/span> The vision for thin film solar panels is that they will be lightweight, inexpensive and can one day be wrapped around objects, conform to a roof, or even hung like sails. R&D on thin film at GE Global Research is pictured above<\/div>\n
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\nDanielle Merfeld<\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cThe ongoing debate today is whether solar photovoltaics (PV) will emerge from its niche position within the energy sector to become a larger part of our power generation portfolio,\u201d Danielle writes on greenbiz.com.”<\/p>\n

“Because solar PV has been in development for 60 years, you could easily assume that it might be another 60 years before it becomes a major energy source. But speaking from within a company that has supplied 25 percent<\/a> of the world’s power generation technology, that future could arrive sooner than many realize.<\/p>\n

“Right now, PV costs are higher than other solutions today — including other renewables. But the overall trends and recent progress within the PV industry reveal that solar is poised for major growth<\/a>\u2026. PV module costs are 10 times cheaper than what they were 30 years ago. Even more impressive is the greater than 30 percent reduction in installed PV systems costs in the U.S. — and even deeper reductions in Germany where competition has become more fierce over the past decade.<\/p>\n

“Despite the financial crisis, investor interest in solar technology continues to be strong<\/a>. Solar PV held the distinction of having more venture capital and private equity funding funneled into it than any other technology on the planet from 2006 to 2008.<\/p>\n

“These investments and others have borne advances such as cheaper, more efficient thin film<\/a> PV modules, and micro inverters that enable safer, modular, scalable rooftop systems complete with built-in communications. Companies like GE<\/a> and others are working to address the integration challenges of putting large amounts of variable resource onto the electrical grid through advanced controls and communications, as well as looking at important storage issues\u2026.<\/p>\n

“Although electricity demand is down in North America, Europe and Japan, we also should not underestimate the need for future replacement generation. Coal retirements by 2015 alone could account for a sizable chunk \u2026 Another trend that could disrupt our expectations for power generation requirements is the electrification of vehicles<\/a>. A gradual shift to electric cars in the U.S. (10 percent by 2020) would create a new source of distributed demand\u2026.<\/p>\n

“Of course, there are potential downsides as policy changes could delay or inhibit growth, and integration challenges to grid infrastructure could delay high penetration of PV generation on the grid. But even still, the trend is unmistakable.”<\/p>\n

* Read her full post on greenbiz.com<\/a>
\n* Watch \u201cCracking the thin film solar code in GE\u2019s 4 global labs<\/a>\u201d on GE Reports
\n* See our interview with Danielle: \u201cCatching rays with \u2018solar sails\u2019<\/a>\u201d on GE Reports
\n* Read about our thin film solar partnership with PrimeStar Solar<\/a>
\n* Hear more from the scientists<\/a> at GE Global Research
\n* Read more Global Research stories<\/a> on GE Reports
\n* Read \u201cCheers! To a decade of innovation at GE\u2019s labs<\/a>\u201d on GE Reports<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve recently written about GE\u2019s accelerated push into next-generation \u201cthin film\u201d solar technology. In the post below \u2013 excerpted from tech blog greenbiz.com today — Danielle Merfeld, who is director of Solar Technologies at GE Global Research, tackles the topic of \u201cWhy it\u2019s time to take solar seriously.\u201d Flex time: The vision for thin film […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4069,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}