PV from Greece; Heliosphera » Micromorph - What is Micromorph Technology and Why it is Important

Heliosphera » Micromorph - What is Micromorph Technology and Why it is Important

The dual semiconductor layer structure makes optimal use of the sun’s light spectrum because the two silicon layers convert a bigger part of the light into electricity. The amorphous layer is sensitive to the visible range of the solar radiation, while the microcrystalline layer converts the infrared part of the spectrum into electricity. As a result a module based on micromorph technology is 50% more efficient than a module based on the conventional amorphous technology.
Micromorph technology is based on environmentally friendly, non-toxic abundant materials. It also requires half the energy needed to produce crystalline silicon cells. Consequently, micromorph modules require two to three years to deliver the energy consumed for their production.

Clean energy a success story, regardless of what 60 minutes claims!

Cross posted from Scaling Green
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/05/1267454/--60-Minutes-About-to-Air-Its-Second-Debacle-in-Under-Two-Months#

This evening, "60 Minutes" is scheduled to run a segmenton the cleantech and renewable energy industries that appears, from the preview, to present extremely outdated, misleading, even blatantly false information. In advance of this possible hit piece on clean energy, the American Council on Renewable Energy's (ACORE) Energy Fact Check program has put together a prebuttal fact sheet on the true state of these industries, demonstrating their strength and the speed at which they're growing. A few key points from ACORE:
*Despite a ginned-up "controversy" over the unique case of Solyndra, the Department of Energy Loan Guarantee Program actually has had a 97% success rate.

*The DOE Loan Guarantee Program has created over 55,000 direct jobs, in everything from electric vehicles to renewable energy (e.g., the Ivanpah solar thermal power project alone has created over 1,000 jobs).

*This past year alone saw an estimated $13 billion invested in U.S. solar power projects, a tenfold increase since 2007.

*From January to October of 2013, all-electric vehicle sales were up 448% year-on-year.

*In Q3 of 2013, 80 new clean energy and clean transportation projects were announced, creating more than 15,000 jobs.
Broadly speaking, there's voluminous evidence that the marketplace has embraced cleantech and renewables, and that government investment has been overwhelmingly successful. For example, one can point to Tesla's 9-year-early loan repayment, the latest industry figures, the highly successful 2013 clean tech investing landscape, and stories from the DOE Loan Programs Office website itself. To cite a few specific industry success stories:
*In 2012, wind energy accounted for the most newly installed capacity - beating even natural gas.

*In 2013, Wall Street showed to be bullish on solar power.

*Electric vehicles are growing in marketshare and consumer satisfaction.
Need more evidence for cleantech's success? Check out this piece by Clean Technica, which provides "13 cleantech charts 60 Minutes seems to have missed." Those charts demonstrate that U.S. (and world) solar power capacity and generation are growing exponentially, that wind power capacity is ramping up fast as well, and that solar power prices have fallen by more than 99% since 1977. Yet, somehow, "60 Minutes" manages to spin all this great, exciting news into the bizarre, 100% false conclusion that "[d]espite billions in taxpayer dollars invested by the U.S. government in so-called 'Cleantech' energy alternatives to fossil fuels, Washington and Silicon Valley have little to show for it."

It's mind boggling, but remember that tonight's apparent hit piece on cleantech comes in the aftermath of the "6o Minutes" debacle over a story it did in late November 2013 on Benghazi. Perhaps, given all its own internal problems, "60 Minutes" should be more concerned about figuring out how its once high standards of journalism have "crashed," instead of slandering one of America's most successful sectors?