Suntech is selling the two new silicon solar panels in North and Latin America first.
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Rolling out efficient silicon solar panels would enable First Solar to tackle the residential rooftop market.
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As a result, silicon solar panels are not much more expensive than thin film solar panels these days.
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Instead of traditional crystalline silicon solar panels, it will be using thin film solar, which uses elements other than silicon.
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Earlier this week, SunPower, which makes silicon solar panels, said it would close one of its factories in the Philippines.
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The ink will work on silicon solar panels as well as those using alternative materials such as cadmium telluride (used by First Solar in the U.S.) or copper indium gallium selenide (used by Solar Frontier in Japan).
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Skyline calls its systems "high gain solar" because it says it delivers 10 times more energy per gram of silicon as traditional solar panels.
The company makes solar cells and silicon wafers used in solar panels.
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Then there is the Chinese billionaire nicknamed Light: Xiaofeng Peng, 33, who got into solar energy in 2005 and took his company, LDK Solar, which makes silicon wafers used in solar panels, public on NYSE Euronext two years later.
The prospect of getting a piece of that growth has fueled the stocks of companies such as Sunpower, the leader in producing traditional silicon solar-power panels, and First Solar, whose thin-film solar panels are cheaper to manufacture but are less efficient.
SolarCity, located in Silicon Valley, leases solar panels and provides other energy efficiency options to businesses and consumers.
Silicon, the major raw material used in the manufacture of solar panels, requires an energy-intensive process to turn it into solar-grade silicon.
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It uses a non-silicon material called cadmium telluride to make ultra thin solar panels while the vast majority of its competitors use silicon.
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Most of the solar panels made today use silicon for the cells and glass for protection from breakage.
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The majority of the top 10 solar panel makers in the world produce silicon panels, and six of them have most of their manufacturing plants in China.
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Many venture capitalists began backing CIGS solar companies in the mid-2000s, when the price of silicon, which is found in most of the solar panels today, reached several hundred dollars per kilogram.
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While thin-film solar panels have lower efficiencies than conventional crystalline silicon panels like those found on residential rooftops, they could be produced at a cheaper cost, especially when silicon prices rise.
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SolarCity is moving to capture the home energy efficiency upgrade market the same way the Silicon Valley startup and its competitors turbocharged the market for residential rooftop solar panels: Financial engineering.
Solar panels that heat pools or power handheld calculators rely on silicon semiconductors to turn light into electrons.
The fall 28% for wholesale silicon solar panel prices came largely as a result of a global oversupply of solar panels and a fierce competition.
First Solar makes the most efficient thin film panels, SunPower makes the most efficient crystalline silicon panels.
Take Sharp, which since 2000 has led the world in solar panels sold (it dropped to No. 2 last year in the midst of a silicon raw-material shortage).
In the mean time, silicon solar manufacturers, from silicon producers to those who take the silicon and turn it into cells and then panels, have built many more giant factories.
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While Silicon Valley companies were working on the problem, silicon prices fell and Chinese companies like JA Solar, Suntech and Yingli Green Energy rapidly expanded production of conventional solar panels, supported by tens of billions of dollars in inexpensive credit from the Chinese government as well as other subsidies like cheap land.
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