http://stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/2007/04/04/wfr-now-memc-shares-fall-on-competition-worries/ Our beat: The stock market. Our job: Beat it. Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:36:49 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.1 hourly 1 http://stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/2007/04/04/wfr-now-memc-shares-fall-on-competition-worries/comment-page-1/#comment-26434 AMAT and WFR: Don’t Count Solar Chickens Before They Hatch - Stock Market Beat - Our beat: The stock market. Our job: Beat it. Mon, 23 Apr 2007 23:15:47 +0000 http://stockmarketbeat.com/blog1/2007/04/04/wfr-now-memc-shares-fall-on-competition-worries/#comment-26434 [...] Applied Materials (AMAT - Annual Report) has announced an aggressive push into solar power and MEMC Electronics (WFR) has seen significant benefits from the demand for silicon wafers for solar panels. Unfortunately for both companies, it is increasingly likely that silicon will not be the fundamental building block for the solar-powered future: Plastic solar cell efficiency breaks record Three percent was the highest efficiency ever achieved for plastic solar cells until 2005 when David Carroll, director of the Wake Forest nanotechnology center, and his research group announced they had come close to reaching 5 percent efficiency.Now, a little more than a year later, Carroll said his group has surpassed the 6 percent mark. “Within only two years we have more than doubled the 3 percent mark,” Carroll said. “I fully expect to see higher numbers within the next two years, which may make plastic devices the photovoltaic of choice.” [...] [...] Applied Materials (AMAT – Annual Report) has announced an aggressive push into solar power and MEMC Electronics (WFR) has seen significant benefits from the demand for silicon wafers for solar panels. Unfortunately for both companies, it is increasingly likely that silicon will not be the fundamental building block for the solar-powered future: Plastic solar cell efficiency breaks record Three percent was the highest efficiency ever achieved for plastic solar cells until 2005 when David Carroll, director of the Wake Forest nanotechnology center, and his research group announced they had come close to reaching 5 percent efficiency.Now, a little more than a year later, Carroll said his group has surpassed the 6 percent mark. “Within only two years we have more than doubled the 3 percent mark,” Carroll said. “I fully expect to see higher numbers within the next two years, which may make plastic devices the photovoltaic of choice.” [...]

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