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According to USA Today, new technology developed by Silicon Valley startup SUNRGI could fast-track solar power by delivering it to the market in a year’s time at a price comparable to coal-fired electricity.
With the aid of sensitive lenses that magnify sunlight 2,000 times, SUNRGI’s concentrated photovoltaic system generates the same amount of electricity as conventional panels. The company plans to make the solar power available to utilities and large industrial and commercial users and then extend the service to residential customers within the next three years.
Right now solar power costs 20 to 30 cents per kilowatt-hour, but SUNRGI hopes to start manufacturing solar panels that can produce electricity for about 7 cents a kilowatt-hour by the middle of 2009. The company’s cost and delivery targets are noteworthy when compared to other solar makers that are working to deliver solar-generated power to the market for 10 to 18 cents a kilowatt-hour by 2010 and 5 to 10 cents by 2015.
