www.solardave.com This is my 7th video interview with Erik Bowman Regional Sales Manager of Akeena Solar out of Denver Colorado. SolarDave: Any New Solar Technologies Coming Out That Excite You? Erik Bowman: There are a lot of different technologies when you think of the cost of installing the system you have the labor component, you have a design component and you have actually the silicon electricity producing component – each one of those has a real dollar value attached to them. Typically anytime that question is answered you are talking about silicon and how much electricity can we produce but the labor and the actual module themselves manufacturing them also add real costs that need to be looked at. So Akeena’s research and development department looks at the installation and the structural component that is work on and we are the only company that I am aware of that that has come out with a product that answers a lot of questions to try and lower that cost – only takes one day to install and a normal panel install could take 3 days to install or 2 days. When it comes to silicon I am not an expert in the industry but everyone talks about thin film that is certainly on the horizon. Thin film has issues with manufacturing capacity – currently it is actually inefficient at 10%. Standard panels run and where from 14 to 20% efficiency. Once the efficiency of thin film reaches the level of standard panels you have only reach parity and the benefit of it unless the cost to …
