Cheap(er) solar cells coming
As Techcrunch notes, costs for solar cells are steadily coming down so maybe after all it won’t be that long until we see the solar roadway? The good thing with this announcement is that its not about a new invention that was just made, but rather about its soon start of its mass production. Colorado State University has developed cells that only cost $1 per watt to manufacture and will be available to the the customer at $2 per watt, which is roughly half of todays prices. The new cells are made from cadmium telluride rather than silicon and there is less waste in their production.
The production of the panels, which have a efficiency of about 11-13%, will begin at the end of next year. The factory will initially produce panels with a capacity of 200 megawatts.