Solar Cells Info

Source: Printed Electronics World /2 April 2008
http://www.idtechex.com/printedelectronicsworld/articles/g24_innovations_appoints_leading_solar_technology_authority_00000868.asp

G24 Innovations Limited (G24i), the UK solar energy pioneer, has announced the appointment of leading international solar research scientist Shozo Yanagida to its advisory board. Mr Yanagida, the Emeritus Professor of Osaka University and a guest professor at the University’s Centre for Advanced Science and Innovation, is recognised as a world authority on solar technologies having spent over 35 years specialising in the subject. (more…)

Source: SemiconductorToday.com / 19 March 2008
http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2008/MARCH/SUNOVIA_190308.htm

Sunovia Energy Technologies Inc of Sarasota, FL, USA and infrared sensor and imaging firm EPIR Technologies Inc of Bolingbrook, IL, USA say that they are collaborating with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zurich) on the further development of cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells.  The collaboration provides the firms with key experience and knowledge related to solar cell development and manufacturing, and should expedite product development efforts, specifically involving the development of CdTe thin-film solar cells including the use of flexible plastic substrates. (more…)

Horizontal Deployment of Thin-Film Technology for TFT LCDs – Annual Production Capacity on 1 GW Scale
Tokyo, Japan, Mar 27, 2008
Source:Sharp Corporation / press release
http://sharp-world.com/corporate/news/080327.html

Sharp Corporation has made a total capital investment of approximately 72 billion yen to build a thin-film solar cell plant in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture that is capable of boosting annual production up to a scale of 1 GW per year.  Production will begin by March 2010 with a 480 MW initial production capacity for solar cells. Combined with the 160 MW capacity of the Katsuragi Plant (Nara Prefecture), this will expand Sharp’s global total production capacity for thin-film solar cells to 1 GW in April 2010. (more…)

University of Swansea working with metals giant Corus on photovoltaic solar cells that could be “painted” onto steel as it is manufactured
James Murray, BusinessGreen, 10 Mar 2008
Source: BusinessGreen.com
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/
2211621/welsh-boffins-investigate-sci

It might sound like something out of a science fiction film, but Welsh scientists claim to have developed a method for capturing solar energy using a new type of paint-like solar cells that could be applied to steel structures, raising the prospect of new buildings that generate usable energy from their external surfaces.

Researchers at the University of Swansea claim the breakthrough was made by an engineering doctorate student who was studying how sunlight degrades paint and found that it could prove possible to develop a type of paint that could exploit a new photovoltaic method of capturing solar energy.
(more…)

Yousuke Ogasawara, Nikkei Electronics, Mar 7, 2008
Source: TechOn
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080307/148677/

Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) developed a tandem type dye-sensitized solar cell with an energy conversion efficiency of 11.0%. The new solar cell outperforms any existing solar cells, according to AIST.  A tandem type solar cell has a structure in which two types of dye-sensitized solar cells are attached to each other. To enhance the conversion efficiency, AIST formed a highly transparent TiO2 electrode and used it in the upper cell. (more…)

Los Angeles, CA, March 6, 2008
Source: Reuters.com
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSN0565006420080306

Power plant builder and operator MMA Renewable Ventures, on Wednesday said it will build a solar electric system in Arizona to power a thin-film solar plant for manufacturer Global Solar.  MMA will finance a 750-kilowatt facility, which will power Global Solar’s Tucson, Arizona manufacturing plant. Global Solar agreed to buy electricity from MMA for 25 years.
(more…)

Tokyo,  Feb 27, 2008
Source: Reuters.com
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUST7784620080227

Japan’s Sharp Corp., which aims to become the world’s biggest maker of solar cells, is looking abroad to raise annual output of thin-film solar cells by sixfold to 6,000 megawatts after 2012 and beat silicon shortages.  Sharp aims to raise its annual thin-film solar cell production capacity “as soon as possible” after a planned new plant in Osaka, western Japan goes online by March 2010 with eventual output of 1,000 MW per year, Toshishige Hamano, corporate senior executive director, said on Wednesday.
(more…)

New York, Mar. 5, 2008
Source: Associated Press/CNNMoney.com
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-23555617.htm

Makers of thin-film solar products are under pressure to increase efficiency levels if polysilicon costs fall as predicted in coming years.  Thin-film products have a leg up on silicon-based solar panels because they are relatively cheap. That’s because they are largely isolated from skyrocketing silicon costs, which have been propelled by surging demand in recent years.
(more…)

Source: Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal /March 6, 2008
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/03/03/daily62.html

DayStar Technologies Inc., a developer of photovoltaic products based on CIGS thin film semiconductor technology, said Thursday it signed a letter of intent with a German company that will commercialize its glass modules.  Santa Clara-based DayStar (NASDAQ:DSTI) said Germany-based juwi solar GmbH will work closely with DayStar in the early stages of production to test and evaluate modules in field installations and assist with third party qualifications required for financing large utility power plants. (more…)

By Emily Masamitsu /March 6, 2008
Source: Popular Mechanics.com
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/earth/4253464.html
Konarka has developed its affordable Power Plastic film with several manufacturing techniques, from an early proprietary printing process to a new breakthrough with inkjet printers that should dramatically reduce costs, with applications including sensors and RFID. (more…)