Via Greentech Media, a report that General Motors Ventures has invested $7.5 million into Sunlogics, which makes solar-powered garage stalls with amorphous silicon solar panels. Yet another indication of the investment community realizing the area over a parking lot or top of a building has been a non-performing asset for businesses. Adding solar turns them into profit centers. As the article notes:
“…GM said it will also install solar arrays at dealerships and GM facilities around the country. GM has 30 megawatts of solar right now and they want to double the total to 60 megawatts by 2016.
The company also just said it would boost the number of Chevy Volts to 5,000 a month to surpass Nissan and its Leaf in sales.
The deal certainly will help Sunlogics. Amorphous silicon has in some ways become the forgotten material in solar. The vast majority of solar panels shipped today are crystalline silicon panels and the price is dropping toward $1.30 a watt. Meanwhile, companies like First Solar and Solyndra continue to drive up the efficiency and drive down the cost in, respectively, cadmium telluride and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar panels. First Solar produces panels at 11.7 percent efficiency for less than 75 cents a watt and CIGS vendors all talk about 12-percent-plus efficiencies. A lot of the amorphous industry is stuck in the 7 percent to 9 percent range.
Amorphous silicon makes some sense in parking canopies. The panels are light, which is great for roofs not designed to bear heavy loads, and the packaging and framing can be designed in such a way as to reduce installation costs. But CIGS panels are light, too. Many of the big parking garage arrays, like those at Google and Applied Materials, rely on crystalline silicon. Still, amorphous has its place. Constellation Energy will install a 5.4-megawatt amorphous array at a Toys ‘R’ Us shipping facility that will consume nearly all of the 1.3 million square feet of roof space.
Locals will cheer the investment. Sunlogics says that GM’s cooperation will create 200 jobs in Michigan and 110 more at its Canadian facility.
…This may just be the ideal niche for solar electricity. In a decent environment, say 2,000 hours of sunlight per year, with 150 kW on a 1-acre carport, you can get 300,000 kWh. At 4 miles per kWh, that means 1.2 million miles per acre per year. This beats Iowa corn yields of 150 bushels, making 500 gallons of ethanol for a 22 mpg car in the USA which would mean 11,000 miles per acre per year. And, that ethanol will probably cost $3 per gallon on up, or about 15 cents per mile, best case. The PV4EV approach, even at $5 per watt, with an LCOE of 25 cents per kWh, means 6 cents per mile at worst.
So, two orders of magnitude more miles per acre per year at a fraction of the price. Even in their dreams, the algae producers cannot match these numbers. It seems to me to be the best way to use PV.
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Bob Wallace 07/28/11 2:22 PM
Your very good comparison of using parking lots vs. farmland for “miles” doesn’t go far enough.By using parking lots for solar we get double use out of land already not being used for food crops. The 1.2 million miles from a parking lot comes with no real estate costs.
(And, as Omega points out it lowers vehicle AC needs. It also creates rain shelter for those moving between car and building. While not an energy gain, it will certainly be appreciated in a downpour.)
…Additionally, adding solar to the top of a building decreases amount of both AC (summer shade) and heating (winter heat traps) needed.
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