The excitement surrounding Abound Solar and the potential for this company to bring down the cost of solar generated power on a global scale is at a fever pitch. Generating electricity at about $1 per Watt would serve as a great equalizer in an energy starved world.
I am not an economist or a stock broker but I must say that the odds that an onslaught of recently liquidated capital might flow into this promising company are high. A torrent of naysayers and worrywarts that recently yanked their assets from the ailing international banks and other old-timey blue chips are chomping at the bit to sew their wild renewable energy oats. This sets the stage for a perfectly poised flood of money which would reinvigorate and essentially recreate the economic landscape. Enter: Abound Solar and other companies like them such as Vestas - the wind energy people.
Business Week Online announced Abound Solar as one of the 25 most successful startups of 2008. Business week cites the fact that Abound raised over $104 million in venture capital in 2008 making it the most lucrative start-up in the state of Colorado.
Abound is using an old American invention to make their magic - the assembly line. By passing panes of regular window glass through a series of extremely hot vacuum chambers various chemical solids are sublimed onto the glass to form a series of photovoltaic thin films and the process of producing cheap solar cells is manifested. Owning proprietary rights to some steps in sealing off the cadmium telluride/cadmium sulfide within a glass sandwich is really what makes the company viable. Watch the assembly line in action within this blog post on Solar Power Authority.
Carl Sagan began an episode of Cosmos with the following assertion - “We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads, but to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact. The cosmos is full beyond measure with exquisite relationships of the awesome machine of nature.”
As we speculate on the success of new energy technology there is hope that human interrelationships with the machine of nature will approach a state of sustainability where humanity can thrive.
Stay tuned for updates about abound solar on Tom Paine's Ghost!
See Abound solar on CNN and their website.
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