Solar Cells Info

By Angelica Oung, Staff Reporter,  May 15, 2007
Source: Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2007/05/15/2003360931

“If 1992 was the nuclear winter, it is now springtime for nuclear energy. We need a multifaceted approach to solving the energy problem.”    — Kuo Cherng-tsong, director of nuclear instrumentation, Institute of Nuclear Energy Reesearch.

To some, the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research in Lungtan, Taoyuan County, might seem to be an unlikely home for scientists to be conducting research into solar cell arrays, but back in 2001, the institute was searching for a new direction for its research.  “In those days, the `nuclear-free homeland’ initiative was taken seriously,” said Kuo Cherng-tsong, director of the nuclear instrumentation division at the institute. “We had to look for new research projects to remain relevant,” he said.

Institute researchers realized that the technology used to build and design semiconductor-based radiation detectors could be applied to building photovoltaic solar cells. Using new high-concentration photovoltaic technology, the institute has achieved a 20 percent overall efficiency rating for its solar arrays and has received eight patents around the world.
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May 17, 2007 /source & copyright: CENS
http://www.emsnow.com/npps/story.cfm?id=26717&pg=story

Unitech Printed Circuit Board (UPCB) Corp. will likely venture into manufacturing of solar cells amid weak demands as a whole for printed circuit boards from handset makers, according to solar-cell equipment suppliers.  UPCB, COMPEQ Manufacturing Corp., WUS Printed Circuit Co., Ltd. and Unimicron Technology Corp. are the world’s top four suppliers of printed circuit boards for mobile phones, commanding a combined half of the world market. Last quarter, lukewarm sales in Motorola adversely affected sales of the four Taiwanese board suppliers. However, UPCB still made NT$1.12 per share after tax thanks to cost-efficient measures.
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Tempe, Ariz., May 16, 2007
Source_ Amtech Systems, Inc. /Press release
http://www.mkr-group.com/ASYS/investors/pressreleases/5.16.07.html

Amtech Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASYS – News), a global supplier of production and automation systems and related supplies for the manufacture of semiconductors, solar cells and wafers, today announced a new order totaling approximately $1.9 million for thermal processing and automation systems from the solar cell industry. For the fiscal 2007 year to date, Amtech has received approximately $5.8 million of solar orders, including this most recent order.  The order is a follow-on order from an Asian-based customer and is expected to ship in the fiscal quarter ending September 30, 2007.
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SeouL, South Korea, May 15, 2007
Source: Powerlight Corp. /press release
http://www.powerlight.com/about/press2006_page.php?id=65

SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq: SPWR), a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of high-efficiency, commercially available solar cells, solar panels, and solar systems, today announced that its subsidiary, PowerLight Corp., has completed construction of Mungyeong SP Solar Mountain, a 2.2-megawatt solar electric power plant in Mungyeong, Korea. The plant is comprised of 10,500 panels and covers an area of approximately 43,000 square meters.
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Bob Hertzberg: Who needs the sun?  A venture capitalist who’s evangelical about climate change is making solar energy cells in wet, wet Wales

By Tim Webb /13 May 2007
Source: The Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2536738.ece

Selling solar power in rain-drenched Wales might seem an uphill struggle. But for Bob Hertzberg, the fast-talking co-founder of venture capital outfit Renewable Capital, that’s the whole point. He is bankrolling a company in Cardiff making solar cells that do not need direct sunlight to generate electricity.

“What better place to demonstrate solar?” asks Hertzberg, a former Californian politician and confidante of Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose company is also a backer of the UK’s best-selling electric car, the G-Wiz. “When I say we are setting up a solar plant in Wales, people look at me with amazement. ‘Don’t you get it?’ I tell them. ‘It works in the rain.'”
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By Andrea Quong, May 17, 2007
source: Redherring.com
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=22324

Shares of solar cell manufacturer China Sunergy shot up more than 50 percent in its Nasdaq debut on Thursday, the latest in a series of Chinese solar IPOs that have been well received by U.S. investors.  The Nanjing, China-based company’s shares closed at $16.56, up $5.56 from its opening price of $11 per share. The company offered 8.5 million depository shares, originally priced between $8 and $10 per share, in a bid to raise almost $100 million. The firm is the fifth Chinese solar company to begin trading on U.S. public markets since late last year in what has become one of the hottest areas in cleantech. Investors poured $4.6 billion into solar on stock markets worldwide last year, and Chinese companies—all of them solar cell manufacturers—soaked up a lot of it.
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Posted by Michael Kanellos, May 18, 2007
Source: CNet News.com
http://news.com.com/8300-10784_3-7-0.html?keyword=Green+solar+china

In solar, has the race to the bottom begun? China Sunergy, a solar cell manufacturer out of Nanjing, sold 8.5 million depositary shares (the vehicle foreign companies use to list their stocks in U.S. exchanges) on Nasdaq this week. The stock went out at $11, shot up to about $16, and is now resting between $14 and $15.
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DAEJEON, May 14 (Yonhap News)
Source: The Hankyoreh
http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_business/209259.html

South Korean scientists said Monday that they have developed the technology to make next-generation solar cells and infrared sensors.  The team, led by Lee Kwang-sup, an advanced materials professor at Hannam University in Daejeon, said it was able to pack 3-nanometer-sized quantum dots into carbon nanotubes. A nanometer is equivalent to a billionth of one meter.
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by Sally Williams, Western Mail / May 18 2007
Source:  http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/

A WELSH firm claims it is on the cusp of a “global energy revolution” using its innovative solar panels that even work in the rain.  American entrepreneur Bob Hertzberg plans to revolutionise household gadgets – including mobile phones, iPods and laptops – with solar cells that work in all conditions, and are soon to go into mass production at his new Cardiff factory.  The climate change campaigner, who ran for Mayor of Los Angeles in 2005, says his G24i company uses nano-sized titanium crystals that turn sunlight into electricity, with no more need for electrical chargers.
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EMCORE PhotoVoltaics Awarded Mars Cruise Stage Solar Panel Manufacturing Contract From NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)  /Award Confirms EMCORE’s Position As The Leading Independent Supplier of High Reliability Multi-Junction Solar Panels For Interplanetary Missions

Albuquerque, NM, April 27, 2007
Source: Emcore Corp. /press release
http://www.emcore.com/news/release.php?id=157

EMCORE Corporation (NASDAQ: EMKR), announced today that the Photovoltaics Division has been awarded a $2M contract by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Center for the design, manufacturing, testing and delivery of fully integrated solar panels for the Mars Cruise Stage spacecraft. This spacecraft is designed to carry the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover and communicate with the entry vehicle that will carry the rover to the surface of the planet. The launch of the spacecraft is planned for fall of 2009.
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