12.5.2007 3:01 PM
Green Energy Innovator of the Year
Company Finds Way to Make Solar Energy Cheaper
The Platts Global Green Energy Innovator of the Year was awarded to Applied Materials, Inc., for its strategy for reducing the cost of photovoltaic solar panels.
The award highlighted the company's SunFab, which it calls "the world’s first and only integrated production line for manufacturing thin film silicon solar modules using 5.7 square meter glass panels."
The key to the success of the product - and its importance globally - is that the process to produce them can be replicated around the globe to "rapidly establish solar panel manufacturing capacity and achieve lower production cost per watt to drive down the cost of solar electricity," as the company put it.
While the cost of solar energy has decreased, further reductions are necessary if it is to compete with fossil fuel energy. That's what makes innovations like this so valuable.
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