Rochester Hills-based Energy Conversion Devices builds cheaper solar panel

The market for solar energy is hot (pun intended). Energy Conversion Devices in Rochester Hills offers commercial -- and soon, residential -- clients a ray of hope: less costly, thin-film solar panels that convert sunlight into electricity.

Excerpt:

Harin Ullal, a solar expert and senior project manager at the National Renewable Energy Laboratories in Golden, Colo., says he expects thin film's share of the solar-power market to increase to 25% by 2015, compared with the 10% to 15% market share thin-film manufacturers say they have now...

In addition to being cheaper to manufacture, thin-film panels perform better in low, diffuse light and in blistering hot  weather, when crystalline silicon panels can lose as much as 25% of their efficiency. Thin-film panel makers such as United Solar, a unit of Energy Conversion Devices of Rochester Hills, Mich., say that because their products work in partial shade, customers don't have to remove trees to generate electricity.

Read the full story here.