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Comment by DennisP | Hacker News Reader

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DennisP·

Sure but the question is, how much of that silicon do you need for your house vs. your car battery.

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No... the question is how easy will it be for "Solar" companies to slide into becoming "Solar & Battery" companies.

Full solution - all with Silicon.

If that's possible - and they can improve the cycle count... or do it cheap enough to make up for a low cycle count... or all of it - improve it, make it cheaper AND under one roof?

Current solar panels have nothing in common with this manufacturing method. It uses a machine based on obsolete amorphous thin-film silicon solar cells. The article just indicates that the technology is understood, not that solar manufacturers can produce batteries.

Even if that were true, this is a release by a company... they aren't going to give away their technology for other people to use.

I never said this company would "give" away the technology... nor do they honestly have to produce it themselves.

That's what licensing agreements are for.

I just think that if I was a solar company that could use my equipment to produce batteries as well? That would be high on the priority list to include in packages...

Companies sure do love bundling things together.

You wouldn't want to combine a solar cell and a battery in a single package; maybe in a modular system instead. After some amount of charge/discharge cycles the battery will quickly lose its capacity and utility. I suspect the operational lifespan of photovoltaics is much greater than the best batteries, and will continue to be for some time in the future.

Well, when I say "single package" I mean provided by a single company. As in a complete package: Solar panels, batteries, etc. The full deal.

I would expect the battery to be in the basement/garage/etc and not on the roof with the panels.

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