nels. The solar industry experienced a shortage of silicon around 2005 when it was growing and competing against the chip industry for the same raw material, which fetched hundreds of dollars per kilogram. Some companies turned to materials such as copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS). The price of silicon has plummeted in recent years to around $30 per kilogram now on the spot market.
Others began to experiment with materials such as germanium and gallium-arsenide, which are more expensive than silicon but can squeeze far more electricity from sunlight. To use these highly efficient materials, developers rely on mirrors and lenses to concentrate sunlight, so they can get the same amount of energy while using a smaller amount of materials. Solaria has opted to stick with the cheaper silicon but still adds the concentrating optics.
The company was founded in 1999, but didn’t start working on concentrating technology until much later. Its engineers first used acrylic for lenses and placed them under a protective glass layer in the panel. They then decided to ditch acrylic and use only glass for the optics and spent 2009 finalizing a commercial design. Dan Shugar, who was president of PowerLight and then head of SunPower’s project development business (SunPower bought PowerLight in 2006), came to Solaria as CEO in early 2010.