it's the photo voltaic module that's the key.
the rest just seems like very clean soldering.
i just found out one of the leading producers of pure silicon is here in Canada .
i recall a brief news item demonstrating a technique were instead of slicing silicon blocks into very thin wafers , the silicon was ground down to a powder and dropped through a flame .
the individual granules melted and formed tiny beads of silicon which could be utilized to form modules at a fraction of the price.
lets face it, if modules were cheaply available, everyone would be using them for everything.
good by oil companies, good by power utilities
i can't help but think that cheaper production technology is being held back.