GE's long-term goals for solar energy would make such concerns irrelevant. Its recent attention to photovoltaics grew out of research on light-emitting plastics. Feeding electricity into such plastics creates light, but researchers knew that they could also do the reverse -- use light to create electricity.
As they began to look more closely at developments in the photovoltaics market, GE researchers also realized that they had expertise to apply to silicon designs that could pay off even if the plastics project ultimately failed. And pursuing the technology supported the goal of Jeffrey Immelt, GE's chairman and chief executive, to become a leader in markets based on renewable-energy technology and energy efficiency, including wind power, fuel cells, hydrogen storage and microturbines.
"If you say you are doing renewables, and you are not doing photovoltaics, you are missing a huge part of it," said Anil Duggal, head of GE's light-energy conversion research program.
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