Magnolia Solar Thin-Film Solar Cells provide business opportunities for utilities

Magnolia Solar Inc., has received a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The award will allow Magnolia Solar to develop technologies designed to increase the overall power output of advanced photovoltaic systems employed in NASA's missions.

There have been many improvements in thin-film technologies over the past decade.

"Thin-film technologies now enjoy life spans equal to those of crystalline PV technologies and are achieving significant improvements in efficiencies as these technologies advance. Given the significant improvement in the efficiency of thin-film PV technologies over the last few years, it is not unreasonable to expect that they will converge toward those of the crystalline PV cells over the next decade," Magnolia Solar's President and CEO Ashok Sood PhD said in an interview. "We are already seeing a widespread market acceptance of thin-film PV modules. Many analysts expect that the market share for thin-film technologies will increase to about one-third of the PV market within the next five years as the overall PV market continues to grow at double-digit growth rates." 

Thin-film technologies already enjoy the lowest manufacturing cost per watt for solar PV panels, according to Sood.

"As efficiencies of thin-film panels continue to improve, the cost factor will decline further, opening new business opportunities for utilities. Regulations require utilities to continue to reduce polluting emissions in coal powered plants or to transition to nuclear or natural gas as a primary source of power," he said. "Either of these options will result in billions of dollars in cost. Thin-film technologies are becoming a viable options for a distributed power generation system where utilities can install roof-top systems at customer sites and integrate them into the grid to reduce the need for building additional nuclear or natural gas based power plants. These systems can supplement power generation during peak-demand hours and reduce the need to build large-scale power generation plants."

For more:
- see this release

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