Solar Cells Info

Solar firms to share research in bid to speed development of new super-efficient thin-film solar cell technology
Sarah Griffiths, BusinessGreen, 08 Feb 2008
Source: BusinessGreen.com
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2209279/german-solar-giants-ink-thin

German solar firms Schott Solar and ersol Thin Film GmbH have announced they are joining forces to accelerate the development of thin-film solar cells, which they claim could increase module efficiency by 50 per cent.  The firms will combine research and development resources as part of an initiative to develop a micromorphous thin-film module with a double-layer structure consisting of an amorphous and a microcrystalline film. The firms claim the double-layer structure should result in improved cell efficiency as it results in two layers of silicon converting the entire light spectrum into power.
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Motonobu Kawai, Nikkei Electronics, Feb 5, 2008
Source: TechOn
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080205/146965/

Applied Materials’ “SunFab” glass-to-module total production line for thin film solar modules.  Moser Baer India Ltd of India has its optical disc and solar cell manufacturing center in Greater Noida on the outskirts of New Deli.   Other companies including LG Electronics of Korea and Franco-Italian STMicroelectronics also have their manufacturing facilities around it. Moser Baer’s manufacturing center is currently drawing interest from solar cell-related manufacturers across the world.
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By Tyler Hamilton, February 06, 2008
Source:MIT Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20163/

Researchers at McMaster University, in Ontario, say that they have grown light-absorbing nanowires made of high-performance photovoltaic materials on thin but highly durable carbon-nanotube fabric. They’ve also harvested similar nanowires from reusable substrates and embedded the tiny particles in flexible polyester film. Both approaches, they argue, could lead to solar cells that are both flexible and cheaper than today’s photovoltaics.
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Posted by Martin LaMonica, Feb 5, 2008
Source: CNet:news.com
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9865042-54.html?tag=newsmap

Atlanta-based Suniva said on Tuesday that it has raised $50 million to commercialize its solar-cell technology, which it says will be as cheap as conventional electricity. Investors are New Enterprise Associations and H.I.G. Ventures, according to the company’s Web site. (more…)

Source: ScienceDaily.com ,  Jan. 11, 2008
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080109094341.htm
Adapted from materials provided by Wiley-Blackwell

Solar cells have attracted global attention as one of the cornerstones of alternative energy. In theory, it seems to make abundant sense to tap into the energy of the sun to convert light to electricity with little or no emission of noxious pollutants. However, in practical terms, progress has been slow because of technological impediments and the many different factors that need to be optimized to obtain stable and high-efficiency devices. (more…)

Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com / Jan 17, 2008
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=51152

In the race to make solar cells cheaper and more efficient, many researchers and start-up companies are betting on new designs that exploit nanostructures — materials engineered on the scale of a billionth of a meter. Using nanotechnology, researchers can experiment with and control how a material generates, captures, transports, and stores free electrons — properties that are important for the conversion of sunlight into electricity.  “We initially thought that the best we might do is get results as good as the sum of the two, and maybe if we didn’t make this right, we’d get something worse. But surprisingly, these materials were much better.” –Jin Zhang, Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz
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Jan 21, 2008
Source: FabTech.org
http://www.fabtech.org/content/view/6001/

Although they both participate in the emerging copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaics sector, Ascent Solar Technology and International Solar Electric Technology (ISET) have at least as many differences between them as things in common. Ascent’s PV roots go back to work begun at ITN Energy Systems in the early 1990s, while ISET first hung out its shingle in March 1985. ITN created Ascent in 2005, and the new venture has been publicly traded since 2006, while ISET has been and remains fiercely independent. Ascent’s process technology uses vacuum-based coevaporation and sputtering, yet ISET favors a nonvacuum ink-print/selenization approach. Both use molybdenum for back contacts and zinc oxide for their front contacts, although ISET adds ITO to the front. ISET’s current manufacturing strategy employs batch processing on glass, while Ascent pursues a roll-to-roll production scheme, with flexible plastic as its substrate of choice. Ascent is based in Littleton, Colorado; ISET calls Chatsworth home, in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley.
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Jan 14, 2008
Source: FabTech.Org
http://www.fabtech.org/content/view/5956/

Few solar photovoltaic sectors exhibit as volatile a combination of hype and promise as the copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) thin-film segment. A handful of companies–Global Solar, Wurth, Showa Shell, for example—are already manufacturing relatively modest amounts of commercial products using CIGS (or its cousin, CIS) films on glass, stainless steel, or flexible substrates, while a larger number are just developing (or trying to develop) processes, building and characterizing (or trying to build and characterize) pilot or initial manufacturing lines, or talking (and talking) about building volume-manufacturing facilities. (more…)

GE’s solar development featured in Applied Physics Letters
Source: GE Power/BusinessWire /press release /17 Jan 2008
Niskuyana, N.Y,  17 Jan 2008
http://www.prdomain.com/companies/G/GeneralElectric/newsreleases/200811851643.htm

GE Global Research, the centralized research organization of the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), announced that scientists on their Nano Photovoltaics (PV) team have demonstrated a scalable silicon nanowire-based solar cell, which has the potential to achieve up to 18% efficiency and be produced at a dramatically lower cost than conventional solar cells. This demonstration represents a promising development in the effort to make PV systems more economically viable for consumers.
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Suntech to Distribute Andalay Panels in Europe, Japan and Australia
Los Gatos, CA & San Francisco, CA, Jan. 2, 2008
Source: Akeena Solar Inc, press release
http://akeena.net/cm/Press%20Release/jan0208.html

Akeena Solar, Inc. (NASDQ: AKNS), a leading designer and installer of solar power systems, announced that its state-of-the-art solar panel technology, Andalay, will be distributed in Europe, Japan and Australia under a license agreement with Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP) one of the world’s leading manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules.
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