“manufacturers make two grades of panels: one for the U.S. and another for Europe,” says Mani Tamizhmani, TÜV’s president. Panels do have to pass federal tests for safety in the U.S. but “consumers here don’t yet know to ask for quality certifications,” he says.

Until U.S. standards catch up, could there be an opportunity for grey market panels that were manufactured for foreign shores?

Insurance should cover replacement costs of the panels for homes.

For solar shoppers these days, the price is right. Panel prices have fallen about 40 percent since the middle of last year (2008), driven down partly by an increase in the supply of a crucial ingredient for panels, according to analysts at the investment bank Piper Jaffray.

The price drops — coupled with recently expanded federal incentives — could shrink the time it takes solar panels to pay for themselves to 16 years, from 22 years, in places with high electricity costs, according to Glenn Harris, chief executive of SunCentric, a solar consulting group. That calculation does not include state rebates, which can sometimes improve the economics considerably.

While the U.S. federal solar energy incentive has been increasing, with the removal of the tax credit cap, state and local incentives have been decreasing. Still, the solar panel price decline is so far making up for those decreased incentives. Creative financing options have also led to increased home solar panel installations.

So this ridiculous scenario would never happen (the show you’d be worried about missing is actually another revival of Fox’s Paradise Hotel), but you will probably be enjoying better alternative energy solutions thanks to the U.S. military.

Can DARPA now score another double success by changing how both the military and civilian worlds consume and produce energy? DARPA’s first goal is always to magnify the might of the U.S. armed forces. That’s why Arlington (Va.)-based DARPA is devoting an estimated $100 million of its $3 billion annual budget to alternative energy.

[…]

In addition to spurring the development of palm-size fuel cells, DARPA has contracted with companies to miniaturize solar cells that would supplant the need for generators. It now wants to develop inexpensive diesel and jet fuel from algae that could be produced in the battle zone. All three programs include the aim of accelerating the manufacture of any new product by private companies, from whom the military could buy.

We’d wager that the entity responsible for the Internet will end up making some significant contributions to the field of alternative energy.

Do you want to power your home with solar generated electricity, but don’t want to (or can’t) make the initial large investment in photovoltaic panels? Thanks to companies like SolarCity, you can get your own residential solar power system for little or no money down. (Kind of like, “No cash, no credit, no problem.” Maybe not the ‘no credit’ part.)

Enter SolarCity. After the Budwigs put $1,000 down, the three-year-old startup installed panels on their modest ranch home that meet almost all the family’s electricity needs. SolarCity also took care of the many complexities that make going solar such a hassle. The company designed and purchased the system and lined up building permits, financing, and government tax breaks. In return, the Budwigs agreed to lease the system for 15 years at $73 a month—$95 a month less than they pay, on average, for conventional power. They expect to recoup their $1,000 investment in less than a year.

SolarCity provides leasing of solar panels to both residences and commercial properties. They’re currently only in California, Oregon and Arizona, but plan to expand to 10 more states by the end of 2010. A competitor, SunRun, offers solar panel leasing in California, Arizona and Massachusetts. Do a search for ‘solar panel leasing [your state or city or community]’ to find other companies that offer this type of home solar panel power option, but do your due dilligence!

What is grid parity? It means getting the cost of producing solar energy down to the point where there is no difference between it and competing fossil fuels like natural gas or coal. For Suntech that means about 14 cents per kilowatt-hour. Currently, Suntech’s cost is about 35 cents, yet Shi says that by 2012 his production line will reach his target.

He plans to do this through a combination of cheaper silicon prices and by increasing the conversion efficiency of the photovoltaic panels. Reaching grid parity also means governments can phase out their current alternative energy subsidies which are currently what make costs competitive with fossil fuels.

Most thin-film makers layer different electron-gathering materials evenly over a piece of foil. The process can be tricky – any imperfections can reduce the effectiveness of the product. Nanosolar’s breakthrough was to use nanotechnology – manufacturing on the molecular level – to create an ink with the crucial materials already mixed together. This ink can be cheaply printed on rolls of thin foil.

Sure, solar chips have been used to power calculators, watches, and other small gadgets for years. But most are made of silicon, the material found in computer chips – and they are rigid, fragile, and expensive to manufacture. (Think clean rooms with skilled techies in space suits.) Konarka’s film rolls off a converted printing press that used to belong to Polaroid. It prints a secret plastic ink onto rolls of thin film. As it absorbs light, the polymer ink emits electrons, producing electricity.

Let’s not throw out traditional photovoltaic panels just yet. Thin film does have some drawbacks:

Power Plastic, however, does have its drawbacks. So far it is not nearly as efficient or durable as traditional silicon panels. Konarka’s cells convert about 6% of the light that hits them into electricity, whereas silicon solar panels typically are 16% to 20% efficient. Hess says Konarka hopes to double its efficiency within a few years. Power Plastic also doesn’t last nearly as long – about five years as opposed to more than 30 with silicon panels. But Hess argues that it doesn’t matter because his product will be cheap to replace.

Still, to us, this stuff looks promising. Sign us up to test the clothing that Konarko is going to weave their cells into.

Then the market did its job. The profits led such polysilicon manufacturers as Michigan’s Hemlock Semiconductor to expand their factories or build new ones. This year, Hemlock added 9,000 tons of capacity, almost doubling its output. By 2011, it will be able to make 36,000 tons annually. More than 50 new companies have also entered the market in the past two years. Solar-panel makers have kept pace, building factories around the world. Now, the global financial crisis, the decline of the euro, and a severe slowdown in some key markets have walloped demand. Supply of solar panels “appears to be overwhelming demand as we move into 2009,” reports Merriman Curhan Ford analyst Brion D. Tanous.

Spot prices of silicon have plunged and the prices of solar panels have sunk to $3 per watt, with more declines predicted. “The solar PV industry could be facing very hard times over the next two years,” says Edwin Koot, CEO of SolarPlaza.com, an industry group based in the Netherlands. Analysts predict a wave of consolidations. “The smaller solar players probably won’t be able to survive,” says Christine Wang, an HSBC Securities analyst in Taiwan.

This will make for a great market for consumers looking to power their homes with photovoltaic solar panels. From the data, it also looks like the buyer’s market will continue for a couple of years, until demand ramps back up again to take advantage of the low costs.

Compared with heavier tiles, more of the lightweight tubes can fit on a roof, boosting output by 25%.

Installation costs are lower with the tubular panels, and they can be horizontally mounted.