The Solar Start-up That Took on China
Australian Garages Work Too
Fresh story out today on a start-up called SunDrive Solar.
They’ve managed to make a new type of solar cell that has set a world record for the rate at which it can turn light into electricity. Beyond that, their solar cells use copper instead of silver to pull electricity out of the devices. This is a potentially big deal because copper is way, way cheaper than silver and because the solar industry has struggled to figure out how to use copper for this purpose for many years. If SunDrive can prove it’s able to mass produce these things, the price of solar panels should go down quite a lot.
Also of note: SunDrive only has about a dozen employees and did much of its R&D work in a garage. Still, it managed to outflank the multi-billion dollar solar panel giants in China that dominate the industry.