RSI Silicon wins the 2007 Ignite Clean Energy Business Presentation competition for their innovative technology that could dramatically impact the solar industry. While Citizenre Corp. has denied any business arrangement with RSI Silicon Mr. James Dunn, Vice Presidentof RSI Silicon, mentioned a company that has contacted them with a business model similar to Citizenre. Their inovative technology will dramatically lower the cost of production and bring much more availability of solar grade silicon to the market. Two key factors that will help the Citizenre manufacturing process. RSI Silicon will use the $200,000 award to build a pilot line and R&D facility, most likely in Massachusetts, followed by a large silicon plant to produce up to 15,000 tons per year.
There is also a radio interview with David Gregg done by Mr. James Dunn who is on the panel of the Radio Show – Energy Freedom Fighters. You can find it in the Associate back office resource section.
Here is an excerpt from an article by Sterling D. Allan of Pure Energy Systems News…
‘RSI is a new energy materials company that has developed a unique process for making solar grade Silicon at a production cost of around $7-9 per kilogram, compared to a production cost of $25-30 via a typical Siemens plant. Additionally, the capital costs for building a 5000 metric ton RSI Silicon plant is projected to be one tenth the cost of a comparable Siemens process plant, and a shorter completion time of just 15-18 months.
The net result is that once RSI is in high-volume production, the price of photovoltaic solar products will be able to drop significantly, making solar energy 35-60% cheaper than at present. The impact is far-reaching for reducing our dependence on fossil fuels, and in making solar power not only feasible, but close to being competitive economically with conventional grid energy.
The cost of the Silicon in a current panel or cell is about $1.50 per Watt. RSI will reduce that to about $.25/W over the next 5 years. This should help reduce the current retail cost from $4/W to under $2/W, achieving grid parity at about $1/W, targeted for 2012-2015.’
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Another notable mention is another company that was in the top ten of the MIT competion… GreenRay. They are developing a revolutionary product that will transform solar electric systems into a broadly accepted household appliance by simplifying the design and installation of PV systems and provide lower cost solar electricity. Citizenre will no doubt have a similar ease of install system.
Here is there website: http://www.greenraysolar.com/
“GreenRay is developing a solar appliance for residential homes. While today’s PV systems use discrete components and require specialized expertise to design and install, our plug and play system is fully integrated. The modular AC solar panel units plug together and snap into a specially-designed roof mount. By reducing design and installation time, we make solar more accessible and simpler to install. Our patent-pending technology sets the new standard for residential solar electric systems.”