Solar Cells Info

By Mike Snyder, Houston Chronicle
Source: Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5130602.html

BP America is donating $1 million and a solar-powered buggy to help Discovery Green, the $80 million park scheduled to open next year in downtown Houston, achieve energy efficiency. The energy company’s gift, to be formally announced today, will pay for two solar panels that will be mounted on the park’s administrative office building and a restaurant, said Guy Hagstette, the park’s director. These panels and other non-polluting energy sources will provide at least 35 percent of the park’s electricity, Hagstette said.
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Source: Bizjournals.com /The Journal of New England Technology,September 10, 2007
http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2007/09/10/daily5.html

Lowell solar technologies developer Konarka Technologies Inc. has entered into a development agreement with Tokyo-based Toppan Forms Co. Ltd., a maker of printable electronics and digital information technologies, according to Konarka executives. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
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Lior Baron, 11 Sep 07
Source:Globes.co.il
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/DocView.asp?did=1000253526&fid=980

More than 5% of the electricity generated in Sweden, Japan, and the US is produced by solar energy. In contrast, Israel, which is ideal in terms of climate for solar power, does not yet generate electricity from solar power on a commercial scale. The failure to promote solar power is shared by all national infrastructure ministers of the past decade, who only looked at the price of electricity, while making no long-term strategies. In most developed countries, it was understood that without government subsidies, it would not be worthwhile for power companies to use the sun to generate electricity. (more…)

Mami Akasaka, Tech-On! Sep 12, 2007
Source: Tech-on
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20070912/139059/

The solar cell market is growing favorably. The worldwide solar cell market is expected to grow 3.7 times that of fiscal 2006 to 2.7716 trillion yen in fiscal 2010, according to research company Fuji Keizai Co. Ltd.  Polycrystalline Si solar cells are the current mainstream in the market, but sales will significantly expand for solar cells using no or a small amount of Si materials amid the tightening supplies of Si wafer, Fuji Keizai forecast.   (more…)

The company did not rule out the possibility of manufacturing solar cells in India if there was huge demand and policy initiative from the government
New Delhi, Sep 11 2007
Source: LiveMint.com /Wall Street Journal
http://www.livemint.com/2007/09/11165351/Sharp-launches-solar-business.html

Japanese firm Sharp on 11 September announced the launch of its solar business in India with an aim to take over 20% of the Rs600 crore domestic market by 2010.  “We hope to achieve Rs100 crore turnover in next three years from our solar business in India but the company’s internal targets are much higher,” Sharp Business Systems India Managing Director Sunil K Sinha told reporters here. (more…)

September 4, 2007
Source: CleanTech.com
http://media.cleantech.com/1695/trina-testing-new-multicrystalline-mod

The China-based maker of PV products said the new modules have a total power output of up to 220 watts.  Changzhou, China-based Trina Solar (NYSE: TSL) said late last week that it has started test production of multicrystalline solar modules that can produce 180 watts to 220 watts of electricity.  Trina, which makes solar photovoltaic products, said on Friday that the modules each contain 60 156-millimeter square cells. Shares of Trina rose $2.25, or 4.8 percent, to $49.07 in afternoon trading. (more…)

Truebbach (Switzerland), September 3, 2007
Source: Oerlikon Solar / press release
http://www.oerlikon.com/ecomaXL/index.php?site=SOLAR_EN_press_releases_detail&udtx_id=4663

Oerlikon Solar, a leading global supplier of field-proven turnkey solutions for thin-film silicon solar modules, introduced today its micromorph tandem technology highlighting its continued global strength in the growing solar industry. The environmentally friendly, energy-conscience micromorph tandem modules offer customers many advantages including the potential to achieve efficiencies of 10 percent and higher in the near future.  Oerlikon Solar’s micromorph module technology, first invented by Dr. Johannes Meier, head of the company’s R&D activities, combines two different silicon materials – amorph and microcrystalline – in a top and a bottom cell. In this way, the amorphous top cell is converting the visible part of the suns spectrum while the microcrystalline bottom cell is absorbing the sun power in the near infrared spectrum. Consequently, the new micromorph tandem technology allows boosting the efficiency level by approximately 50 percent compared to traditional amorphous single cells. (more…)

by Jane Burgermeister, Contributing Writer
Vienna, Austria   September 7, 2007
Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com

A new generation of ultra thin solar modules that can be integrated into the facades of buildings at low cost is to be produced in Germany next year. The German company Schueco has joined up with E.ON, the country’s biggest energy company, to invest 100 million euros [$US 136 million] in the research and production of this new ultra thin solar technology that cuts down on the need for silicon, the costly raw material for solar cells.  Production is due to start at a site in Saxony-Anhalt in the second half of 2008.
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High-Performance Encapsulant and Potting Agents Expand Dow Corning’s Industry-Leading Portfolio of Solar Products
Midland, Mich., Sept. 3, 2007
Source: PR Newswire / CNNMoney.com
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/CLM00703092007-1.htm

Following the launch of its first solar feedstock material (Dow Corning(R) PV 1101 SoG Silicon) last year, Dow Corning’s Solar Solutions Group has extended its product offerings for the global solar energy market with an encapsulant and two potting agents that have been tested and qualified for solar applications. “We’re taking the guess-work out of figuring out which of the hundreds of available coatings, encapsulants, potting agents, sealants, adhesives and other related products work best for demanding solar energy applications,” said Donald L. Buchalski, senior marketing specialist, PV module assembly and integration, for Dow Corning’s Solar Solutions Group. “These products demonstrate our commitment to providing total solutions throughout the PV value chain.”
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Christoph Hammerschmidt, EE Times Europe
Munich, Germany, Sept 9, 2007
Source: EETimes.com
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201803664

With a new integrated production line for large-area solar panels, Applied Materials claims it can reduce the costs of photovoltaic system installations by more than 20 percent. The SolarFab Thin Film Line production system is presented at the European Photovoltaic Solar Conference presently held in Milan, Italy.  The SolarFab production system processes ultra-large glass substrates with dimensions of 2.2 by 2.6 meter. The resulting area of 5.72 square meters is four times the size of today’s largest thin film solar production panels, driving down costs and improving productivity, the company says. It can be configured with single or tandem junction technology. In one year, the system can produce an amount of solar modules that generate 75 megawatts of electrical power.
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