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From: Hank.Walker%CMU-CS-UNH@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: very cheap solar cells
Message-ID: <12277@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 9-Aug-84 14:17:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12277
Posted: Thu Aug  9 14:17:00 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Aug-84 00:34:01 EDT
Lines: 8

The talk about the cells costing a tenth what silicon solar cells do must be
bunk.  Current module costs are maybe $5/W, so he is talking $0.50/W, or
$5/wafer.  The cost of silicon cells is primarily the crystalline silicon.
The cost of the antenna cells is the complex lithographic step.  Rectifiers
will probably have to be integrated onto the same wafer, so an alignment
problem is created, and it looks a lot like you're making an integrated
circuit.  Note that according to the article, a prototype won't be available
until next year, so the process must be rather difficult.