Which Solar Technology Will Win?

Submitted by kelly_rice on Fri, 05/13/2011 - 13:01

By Marc Cortez, Director of Product Marketing for Amonix

Last week I had the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion at the CACI (California Clean Innovations) Conference in San Diego. The name of the session was “The Run for the Sun: Which Technologies will Emerge as the Winners?” and I sat with representatives from off-grid, solar thermal, and standard crystalline module companies to discuss the relative advantages and disadvantages of each. Because of the interactive format of the panel, the discussion was interesting and, at times, quite lively.

When the moderator asked which of these solar technologies will ultimately win, my answer was simple: none of them. My explanation? Technologies won’t win market acceptance, but solutions to problems will. Amonix views technology through a market lens, and so every proposed feature or enhancement must ultimately deliver on our customer promise of the lowest Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). Technology for technology’s sake ultimately won’t win, but channeling that technology towards explicit customer benefits will.

The forum asked a similar question about which of the panelists we viewed as true competitors, and my answer was also technology neutral: all of them, or none of them. Customers want solutions, not technologies, and one size does not fit all. This has become even more true as the solar electricity market has aligned into measurable, definable customer segments; utility customers, for example, view technology as risky and therefore unattractive. And so a true competitor will be able to marry lab promise with manufacturing effectiveness to deliver true customer economics.

This isn’t to say that technology isn’t important – certain technologies have inherent advantages in the right environments, like CPV’s ability to deliver more energy in hot, dry climates – but now more than ever technology is being viewed as a means to delivering customer value, nothing more.

Who is the competition and which technologies will ultimately win? For utilities, whichever company can leverage their technology to deliver the lowest LCOE.

Amonix is working closely with the construction companies that install its equipment to optimize the installation process. In one of our most recent installations, a 2 MW system in the southwest US, we measured over 500kW AC per day being installed by a two crane system. The time-lapse video of this quick installation