Solar Cell Manufacturing -- Can Australia Compete? (March 28, 2013)

John Mathews, Professor of Strategic Management at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management writes in today's The Conversation on "What’s going on with Chinese solar?"

Here we quote his last two paragraphs:

...Chinese authorities recognise that the cost reductions in crystalline silicon technology [see image] will necessarily moderate (costs have fallen by 75% over the last four years) and so new technologies will have to be scaled up. The next generation is already known: thin film wafers which can be “printed” on rolls of plastic, using materials like cadmium and tellurium, or the less-toxic copper, indium, gallium and selenide.

There is still a chance for Australian firms to get involved in the production and export of next-generation solar technology – and capitalise on the fact that the technology was actually invented here (at University of NSW). But it needs strong and determined support for this to happen – on a scale that would match the support that is already being offered in China.