ICT bigwigs enter solar market
The world’s biggest semiconductor maker will spin off solar technology it has developed to a new start up called SpectraWatt Inc. Intel will also lead the first round of funding for SpectraWatt worth US$50 million. Other investors include Cogentrix Energy – a Goldman Sachs subsidiary, PCG Clean Energy and Technology Fund, and Germany’s Solon AG.
Intel’s move follows closely behind similar announcements by ICT giants, IBM and HP. IBM, which has extensive semiconductor expertise, has announced a number of technologies that include recycling silicon wafers for solar panels, concentrated solar systems, and the manufacturing of solar cells using CIGS, a material combining copper, indium, gallium, and selenide while HP announced last month that it will license its transparent electronics to solar start up Xtreme Energetics.
Intel’s SpectraWatt will develop and manufacture photovoltaic cells from a new facility in Oregon starting the second half of this year with the first shipments expected by mid-2009. The company will work on improving the efficiency of solar cells today, and lower the costs of solar power per watt.
Andrew Wilson, the former general manager in the Intel New Business Initiatives group and CEO of SpectraWatt, told Cnet that the company has already secured a supply of polysilicon, the key ingredient for the manufacturing of photovoltaic cells.
“The solar industry is akin to where the microprocessor industry was in the late 1970s. There is a lot to be figured out and improved,” Wilson said on Cnet.
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Category: Global energy, Green corporations, Renewables
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