Sunrgi to Bring Solar Power to the Masses

I have for years hoped for a large-scale and economical solution to our fossil fuel woes. One of the biggest problems with solar is the cost to produce it. While coal-fired power plants can make electric at a cost of about five to seven cents a kilowatt hour, solar costs between fifteen and twenty cents per kilowatt hour to produce. This means that large-scale adoption of solar is limited, and there is absolutely no reason for utility companies to even consider solar as part of their production method.

Sunrgi (pronounced sun-er-gee) means to change all that. Part of the problem with producing cost-effective solar is that getting enough production from normal photo cells means having acres and acres of solar panels. If too much sun is concentrated on photo cells, they overheat and are destroyed, thus the need for having so many panels to capture small bits of solar energy at a time. Sunrg has developed a way to concentrate the photovoltaics to produce up to 100 times more energy to one solar panel, and has developed their own (proprietary) system for heat removal, which takes the burn out of the cells. Combining these two things gives us a product that can produce power at a cost of about five cents a kilowatt hour in a smaller space and without the need for large amounts of water or high-cost mainenance.

Can I get one on my roof? Yes, but the initial push of sales from Sunrg will be to utility companies, government bodies, and large companies with a need for renewable energy sources. Prototypes have already been produced and tested not only in the lab, but in the field. Production should begin in twelve to fifteen months.

I encourage you to visit their website, and especially their FAQ section, which answered a lot of my initial questions about how the product works. Are we finally going to get the solar-based power we’ve been hoping for?