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IBM and TOK team up on solar cells
BY TEAMING UP with Japanese semiconductor outfit Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK), IBM wants to let the sun shine in, or more accurately, come up with cheaper, more efficient solar power technology.
IBM and TOK’s move is the latest bit of bandwagonning in the field, as big tech entities begin to realise that indeed, there is money to be made from clean energy sources. Especially from photovoltaic solar products which magically transform sunlight into electricity.
TOK has the tech (not just the talk) when it comes to LCD coating techniques and high purity chemicals, whereas IBM claim to be able to deliver on the cell-manufacturing know-how side of things, so all in all, the pair seem well suited to their goal of being able to increase solar panel efficiency by bettering solar modules.
Talking to Reuters, an IBM boffin in charge of the firm’s photovoltaic activities, Supratik Guha, noted that, unlike other companies who were still chasing the solar silicon dream, IBM and TOK would instead be developing innovative ways of converting sunlight to electrical power through copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) cells, thought significantly more effective. Companies like Nanosolar, Global Solar Energy, Miasole, and Heliovolt are also focusing on CIGS cells rather than solar.
But neither IBM nor TOK, plan to get bogged down manufacturing the sunny cells themselves. Rather, they plan to develop the technology and then sell it off to solar companies in a few years time.
IBM is said to be aiming for a 15 per cent efficiency goal for low-cost solar cells. Guha gushed, "I think that if we can get to a module cost of less than $1 per watt, and be able to keep a handle on the system costs, then one should be able to get to grid parity”. µ
L’Inq
Reuters
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A lot of people believe green energy will be more expensive than traditional energy sources and that that "fact" will never change. But for those of you who are Christians, consider the following:

The garden of Eden is considered by most to have been a part of planet Earth. If sin had never occurred, at some point we would have had to spread out to the rest of the planet, then to the stars. Well, when you consider that we were meant to live for eternity, that would necessitate the Earth and universe living for eternity, meaning that things wouldn't be meant to EVER wind down in the original plan. God didn't change anything about planet earth when Adam and Eve were cast out, the Earth is simply a perfect system that was thrown out of whack over the past 6000 years. So, if that's true, than renewable energy should be the best choice of energy, and it's just a matter of putting in the time to do the research.