Solar Cells Info

Bob Hertzberg: Who needs the sun?  A venture capitalist who’s evangelical about climate change is making solar energy cells in wet, wet Wales

By Tim Webb /13 May 2007
Source: The Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2536738.ece

Selling solar power in rain-drenched Wales might seem an uphill struggle. But for Bob Hertzberg, the fast-talking co-founder of venture capital outfit Renewable Capital, that’s the whole point. He is bankrolling a company in Cardiff making solar cells that do not need direct sunlight to generate electricity.

“What better place to demonstrate solar?” asks Hertzberg, a former Californian politician and confidante of Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose company is also a backer of the UK’s best-selling electric car, the G-Wiz. “When I say we are setting up a solar plant in Wales, people look at me with amazement. ‘Don’t you get it?’ I tell them. ‘It works in the rain.'”

According to Hertzberg – speaking on a hands-free mobile as he drives through the desert to Palm Springs – these cells can be used on bags and even on clothing to recharge laptop computers, iPods and mobile phones.  G24i (owned by Renewable Capital) will, Hertzberg declares, put the principality at the forefront of a global energy revolution. “Wales was in the vanguard of the last industrial revolution and what drove it – coal. Now we are talking about the technology of the future.”

The former speaker of the California State Assembly thinks big and talks a good game. In the Hertzberg vision of the world in 2020, the threads of our clothes and even the paint on our windows will generate electricity using solar power.  G24i will start production of the cells within two months. In five years, the company hopes to be making a profit of £130m on sales of over £550m and eventually plans to float on the stock market in London.

Solar energy has been around for decades but has yet to make the leap to the mass market. Figures from Photon Consulting, a research company, show that only 2.7GW of the world’s electricity was generated by solar last year – less than 5 per cent of total UK generating capacity. However, Photon estimates that solar capacity will increase fivefold by 2015.

Investors are starting to cotton on to the huge growth potential. PV Crystalox Solar announced last week that it was to float on the LSE, with a value of around £500m, making it the largest solar-power company to list in the UK so far.  Salesman that he is, Hertzberg insists G24i isn’t just any old solar company. It uses nano-sized titanium crystals, which turn sunlight into electricity in a process similar to photosynthesis (the method plants use to store the energy from sunlight in sugars). Because G24i’s technology is more powerful than other solar cells, it does not need direct sunlight to generate electricity and can work even in rainy Wales.

The use of nanotechnology also makes the cells lighter, more powerful and more flexible. Because they aren’t made using silicon, which is in high demand, they are also relatively cheap to produce. Traditional solar cells are either mounted on glass or use brittle plastic, which can be easily damaged. The versatility of G24i cells means they can be carried around to charge mobile appliances or used in remote areas far from the electricity grid. G24i has the exclusive rights to manufacture these cells in Europe and is negotiating for worldwide rights.

“Up to now, all solar has been priced based on being fixed to something, either to the roof of someone’s home or to a factory,” says Hertzberg. “This is something kids can carry around on their backpacks.”

G24i expects to start taking orders next year and will target the consumer market for such things as MP3 players. In the US, 8 per cent of electricity consumption is from these kinds of gadgets, as Hertzberg points out: “When you are going to change the world, it has to be personal.”

The company has already had talks with the mobile phone giants Nokia, Motorola and Sony-Ericsson.

Hertzberg has no time for those who cast doubt on the need for renewable energy: “These cynics are the same who thought television or the telephone was not going to work. This is a revolution. It’s here to stay. We should move these people aside as they are going to be run over.”

He compares their lack of imagination to that of Charles Duell, the commissioner of the US Patent Office who, in 1899, famously wrote: “Everything that can be invented has been invented.” The quote is framed on the wall above his desk.

Sounding almost evangelical, he says he became “gripped” by the issue of climate change during the energy crisis that led to blackouts in California at the beginning of the decade. “It’s the civil rights issue of our generation. It’s the biggest thing we can do. It’s part of who I am.”

His conviction that climate change needs to be addressed is matched only by his belief that it is business and the profit motive that will drive change. Renewable Capital’s investments include wind farms in the UK, and Hertzberg sees big money to be made from green technology, even without subsidies. The role of rich countries, he argues, should be helping the developing world adopt “distributed generation” (local mini-generators, such as solar panels) through “green financing” such as carbon offsetting. “Developing nations have jumped over fixed-line phones to mobiles. If we are smart, we can help them jump over fixed infrastructure like big fossil fuel power stations and develop distributed generation.”

He takes a pragmatic view of biofuels, which are being aggressively pushed by the powerful US farming lobby, although critics claim they do more harm than good to the environment.  If biofuels help weaken the influence of Big Oil, Hertzberg is in favour of them: “Breaking down these powerful interests is important. If the result is not a perfect solution, it’s a step in the right direction.”

Nor is he afraid to get his hands dirty in the climate change debate. “It’s like making sausages,” he says, “slurpy and dirty.” He ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in 2005, finishing in third place, and his political background comes in handy in an industry where different interest groups vie for influence. “You have to hold your noses and have inspiration, and walk home knowing you have done some good.” And he’s hoping to make a stack of money out of it, too.