Solar Cells Info

By Henry Fountain, October 6, 2008
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/science/07obsola.html?ref=environment

Photovoltaic cells, the basic building blocks of solar panels, are more efficient and less costly than ever. But manipulating cells (which are usually made of semiconductor materials) and incorporating them into different panel designs is not necessarily easy.  John A. Rogers of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and colleagues have come up with a novel method for creating extremely thin solar cells that can be combined in flexible, even partially transparent, arrays. Described in Nature Materials, it could be called the rubber-stamp approach. (more…)

by Gina Roos, Green SupplyLine, Dallas, Texas, 14 October 2008
Source: EETimes, com
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=211200560

Sanyo Energy (U.S.A.) Corp., a subsidiary of Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., has introduced the HIT Power series of solar panels based on the company’s proprietary Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer (HIT) technology.  Designed to replace the previous HIT series, the new hybrid solar panels, with uniquely structured cells, feature technological improvements including higher conversion efficiency, less vulnerability to high temperatures and enhanced construction that make the panels among the most efficient in the solar market, said the company. (more…)

By The Associated Press, 16 October 2008
Source: Tulsa Wolrd
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=20081016_12_Grou801558

Ground will be broken next week for a $51 million plant in Quapaw that will make elements for high-efficiency solar cells.  The Umicore plant, which is to be completed in the spring of 2010, will employ 165 people earning an average salary of $51,000.  Brussels, Belgium-based Umicore selected Quapaw over sites in Phoenix and Albuquerque, thanks to the availability of inexpensive power, water and land as well as good transportation access.
(more…)

Solyndra hopes to capture the wasted sunlight falling on roofs by making solar cells into cylinders rather than panels
By David Biello, October 7, 2008
Source: Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=cylindrical-solar-cells-give-new-meaning-to-sunroof

There are approximately 30 billion square feet (2.8 billion square meters) of expansive, flat roofs in the U.S., an area large enough to collect the sunlight needed to power 16 million American homes, or replace 38 conventional coal-fired power plants. By covering these roofs with large, flat arrays of cylindrical thin-film solar cells (think massive installations of fluorescent tubes, only absorbing light rather than emitting it), Fremont, Calif.–based Solyndra, Inc., hopes to harness that energy.

“With a cylinder, we are collecting light from all angles, even collecting diffuse light,” says CEO Chris Gronet, who founded the solar cylinder company in 2005 based on an idea he had late one night while pondering less expensive ways to install photovoltaic panels. Because the arrays do not have to be angled or anchored into the roof, he adds, “we have half the installation cost and can install in one third the time.”
(more…)

A novel photovoltaic technology moves into large-scale production.
By Kevin Bullis, MIT Technology Review, October 17, 2008
Source: http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/21574/

In a significant milestone in the deployment of flexible, printed photovoltaics, Konarka, a solar-cell startup based in Lowell, MA, has opened a commercial-scale factory, with the capacity to produce enough organic solar cells every year to generate one gigawatt of electricity, the equivalent of a large nuclear reactor. (more…)

IMEC and its associated laboratory Institute for Materials Research in MicroElectronics reported they have improved the composition of organic solar cells. Researchers developed conjugated polymers to stabilize the nanomorphology of the active layer.
Source: Semiconductor International, 10/14/2008
http://www.semiconductor.net/article/CA6605199.html

IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) said its associated laboratory Institute for Materials Research in MicroElectronics (IMOMEC, Diepenbeek, Belgium) has developed a method to stabilize organic solar cells, with an order of magnitude improvement in cell lifetimes.  The center, located on the campus of the Hasselt University, said the research paves the way for commercial organic solar cells with an operational lifetime of more than five years. The researchers optimized the nanomorphology of the active layer, creating a more stable mix of organic compounds that can trap photons and transport the light energy to an electrical contact. (more…)

By Paul Sisco, Washington, 16 October 2008
Source. VOA News.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-10-16-voa23.cfm

In a state that already leads the U.S. in solar electricity, a company has developed a unique solar system it touts for large commercial rooftops. The northern California is already marketing the system, which it unveiled 7 October, to companies around the world. VOA’s Paul Sisco has this Searching for Solutions report.  In California, the governor has set an ambitious goal for renewable energy, and an industry organization says the state is the top producer of solar electricity in the country.  Now a northern California company, Solyndra, is introducing a new solar panel designed for vast commercial rooftops. The collectors are quite different than tradition flat panels.  (more…)

Source: Nanotechwire.com / 19 Oct 2008
http://nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=6773

Researchers have created a new material that overcomes two of the major obstacles to solar power: it absorbs all the energy contained in sunlight, and generates electrons in a way that makes them easier to capture.  Ohio State University chemists and their colleagues combined electrically conductive plastic with metals including molybdenum and titanium to create the hybrid material. (more…)

Source: SolarWorld AG press release/ DGAP / 27 Aug. 2008
http://www.dgap.de/link.php?von=19970101&typ=news&isin=DE0005108401
&sprache=en&a=10&v=en&id=294596

The one hundred millionth solar cell from Deutsche Cell GmbH, the cell manufacturing division of SolarWorld AG, was today handed over to the sales and distribution people. The total number of solar cells manufactured since the start of production in the year 2002 is equivalent to the size of 270 football pitches or the area covered by the Duchy of Monaco. With the power generated by the solar cells produced in Freiberg in Saxony some 1.6 million tons of CO2 have so far been saved; over their entire service life it will be more than 40 million tons of greenhouse gases. ‘Our objective is to use our highly efficient solar technology to replace the old energy sources step by step and to protect the climate in this way’, says Frank H. Asbeck, Chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG. (more…)

Source: SolarWorld AG, press release/ DGAP /Sept 1, 2008
http://www.dgap.de/link.php?von=19970101&typ=news&isin=DE0005108401
&sprache=en&a=10&v=en&id=298578

By conferring the SolarWorld Einstein Award SolarWorld AG again pays tribute in 2008 to trail-blazing achievements around the development of
solar power technology. The solar technology group bestows this solar award carrying the highest prize money in the photovoltaic industry upon people who have acquired special merits in the development of photovoltaic technology. The award ceremony will take place on 1 September 2008 on the
occasion of the 23rd European Photovoltaic Conference in Valencia. ‘Commitment, independent thinking and innovative strength are crucial
qualities needed to advance photovoltaic technology and thus climate-friendly power generation worldwide’, says Dipl.-Ing. Frank H.
Asbeck, Chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG. ‘With the SolarWorld Einstein Award we want to alert people to this fact’. The SolarWorld Senior Einstein
Award for outstanding lifetime achievements is being presented for the fourth time; the SolarWorld Junior Einstein Award for young generation
scientists for the third time. (more…)