Applied Materials, whose goal is to make electronics smaller and cheaper, announced that they have acquired Baccini, who is a world leader in microelectronics. According to the announcement Applied Materials purchased Baccini for US$334 million in cash. One of their goals with this acquisition is to extend the popularity of solar products, and to make the cost of solar energy more comparable to electric energy.
Charles Gay will head up Baccini’s integration into Applied’s Solar Business Group. With this integration the production cost will hopefully come down, and will result in lower prices for solar energy. Mike Splinter, president and CEO of Applied, said:
With our broad portfolio of advanced solar cell manufacturing technologies, we plan to reduce the production costs for both crystalline silicon cell and thin film modules, while also decreasing the grams-per-watt usage of silicon material. As a result, we expect to help drive down the cost of solar electricity to be competitive with conventional electricity sources and to accelerate the rate of adoption of solar technology for commercial and residential applications.
I guess we will soon see if the production costs can be reduced enough to make a significant difference in the price of solar power, and if it will actually be competitive when compared to electric power.
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