Solar Cells Info

Source: ErSol Press Release 21 February 2007
http://www.ersol.de/en/pm.php?type=pm&id=129&year=2007

* Sales doubled in 2006 to € 127.8 million and EBIT to € 20.3 million
* 2007 will be marked by strong expansion activities
* Significant boost in earnings and sales in 2008
* Continued focus on technological progress – cooperation with US company
Silicon Valley Solar Inc. (SVS)

ErSol Solar Energy AG (ErSol), Erfurt has once again closed off the previous financial year with record results. Based on preliminary calculations, consolidated sales grew in 2006 by 98% to € 127.8 million (2005: € 64.4 million) following the Group’s capacity expansion, deliveries already accrued, thanks to the long-term raw materials agreements concluded in 2005, and the integration of the silicon-recycling subsidiary SRS in financial year 2006. Earnings have also shown disproportionate growth despite start-up costs for new business segments: earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) were more than doubled to € 20.3 million (2005: € 9.5 million) and the EBIT margin grew to 15.9% (2005: 14.7%). ErSol has also recorded a sharp growth in earnings before taxes (EBT): EBT increased to € 19.7 million (2005: € 9.5 million).
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By Jessica DiNapoli /Sun Senior Writer   / Feb 26 2007
Source: The Cornell Daily Sun
http://www.cornellsun.com/node/21656

“I’m not going to lie, I work a lot — probably from 8 a.m. until 1 a.m.” said Adam Farrell ’06. “But I party just as hard.”  Farrell has a jam-packed agenda as co-founder of Silicon Solar — a company with over 82,000 customers and estimated sales of $5 million that is expanding across America and into China. “We have over 300 products, from small innovative type things to solar hot water systems,” said Patrick McDonough ’06, sales and marketing for Silicon Solar.

One such product is a solar light that sits atop real estate signs, so that they light up at night. Silicon Solar had humble beginnings as a high school earth science project: as Farrell worked on his project, he realized that he could save money. So, instead of purchasing solar cells from Radio Shack for $5, Farrell looked into buying solar cells in bulk from a warehouse in Massachusetts. In bulk, the cells cost about ten cents. “That’s a pretty good margin,” Farrell said.
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26.02.2007
Source: Aleo Solar AG /press release
http://www.presseportal.de/story.htx?nr=946325&ressort=7

Prenzlau/Oldenburg – Aleo Solar AG has signed a contract package with Q-Cells AG, doubling the delivery volume of solar cells  under two existing contracts. Only a few days ago, Aleo solar announced the conclusion of a supply contract with Q-Cells for its Spanish manufacturing subsidiary in Barcelona. All in all, Aleo Solar has now signed medium- and long-term contracts with a total of three prominent suppliers. The total volume of contractually secured solar cells for the next 10 years amounts to well over 600 MWp.

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Bonnie Eslinger, The Examiner  /Feb 22, 2007
Source: Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/a-579028~S_F__seeks_partner_for_solar_program.html

SAN FRANCISCO – The City is ready to partner with a private company to develop large-scale solar power facilities — and has $100 million of bond revenue to bring to the table — Mayor Gavin Newsom announced at a gathering of green technology entrepreneurs and investors Wednesday. Although voters approved a $100 million revenue bond measure in 2001 to pay for solar equipment on city-owned buildings, that money has gone unspent because of a restriction that required each solar project to generate power that would cost the same or less than using electricity from the traditional power grid, according to Tony Winnicker, a spokesman for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.
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By Sharon Kedmi / Feb 22, 2007
Source: Haaertz
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/828955.html

After years of delays and postponements, a tender for building Israel’s first solar-power plant is to be issued this year. The 250-megawatt plant will be built on 4,000 dunams (1,000 acres) in the Ashalim complex in the Negev. In 2001, the cabinet decided that by 2007, 2 percent of the country’s energy production – or some 300 megawatts – would come from alternative-energy sources. To date, only 5 megawatts are being generated by such plants.
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By Barbara E. Hernandez
CONTRA COSTA TIMES / 22 Feb 2007
source: Contra Costa Times
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/16755975.htm

DANVILLE – One of the nation’s leading home builders pledged to install solar power systems in all its new homes in the Bay Area, representatives for Lennar Corp. said Wednesday. Lennar made the announcement at its upscale, all-solar development in the Milano housing community in Danville. Three other projects in San Ramon slated to open this year will be solar-powered. “Our marketing platform is that everything is included,” said Peter Beucke, vice president of the Bay Area division of Lennar. “So every home in Milano will come with a solar package. … It’s now a standard inclusion in our homes.”
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Derek Sands /UPI /February 20, 2007
Source: Middle East Times
http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070220-044724-3240r

CAIRO —  Egypt may soon harness the same physics that a child uses to burn an ant with a magnifying glass, to generate electricity from the sun, a move that reflects the growth of Concentrating Solar Power technology worldwide. Plans to build a 150 megawatt (MW) combined solar- and gas-powered electric plant near Cairo are part of a larger effort by Egypt, and others in the region, to expand their use of renewable energies, including solar, wind, and nuclear power.

The Egyptian project, set to be built in Kuraymat, 104 kilometers (65 miles) south of Cairo, will use parabolic-trough Concentrating Solar Power, a technology that has been used on a limited scale for more than 20 years, but has recently attracted attention in the Middle East because of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and due to concerns over the future of petroleum supplies.
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* ErSol sets the first machines in place in new thin film production
* Nominal capacity of 40 MWp planned as early as end of 2007

source: ErSol Solar Energy AG / press release 18 Dec 2006
http://www.ersol.de/en/pm.php?type=pm&id=125&year=2006

The first production machines were today brought into place at ErSol Thin Film GmbH, a subsidiary of the ErSol Group, at its new factory for amorphous thin film modules in Erfurt. This marks the start of the tool-move-in phase for production facilities following a five-month construction period. “The first machine to be installed will be the ‘Kai 1200’ type PECVD coating plant built by Swiss Oerlikon Solar, a global leader in thin film and vacuum technology. In future this will enable us to deposit the amorphous silicon layer on the glass substrate,” Dr. Lutz Mittelstädt, Managing Director of ErSol Thin Film GmbH, enthusiastically describes this first stage in the construction of the new facility at the Erfurt Freight Traffic Centre. Machines and systems are due to be set in place in a further five phases in the coming months. These include the so-called TCO (transparent conductive oxide) systems, laser cutting systems and related systems for the production of thin film solar modules.

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House of Representatives passes new legislation enabling the installation of a solar energy system on Federal building.

by Sara Parker, Staff Writer, Washington, DC  / February 14, 2007
source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=47438

In many scenarios by leading renewable energy experts and advocates, placing solar systems on all Federal buildings has long been on the list of breakthrough strategies to boost the U.S. solar power industry through government procurement. That scenario is now one step closer to becoming a reality with the Solar Net project.  On Monday, the House of Representatives passed new legislation for the installation of a solar photovoltaic (PV) system on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) building — with hopes that the project will serve as a model for other government buildings.

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Article by Neil Thomas  / Feb. 16, 2007-
source: Univ Delaware Daily
http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2007/feb/boer021607.html

Lawrence L. Kazmerski, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Center for Photovoltaics (NCPV) at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., will receive the 2007 Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit during a ceremony to be held at 3 p.m., Thursday, April 5, in Gore Recital Hall of the Center for the Arts at the University of Delaware. The medal and a cash award of $40,000, funded by the Karl W. Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit Trust, is given every two years to an individual who has made significant pioneering contributions to the promotion of solar energy as an alternate source of energy through research, development or economic enterprise or to an individual who has made extraordinarily valuable and enduring contributions to the field of solar energy in other ways.
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