Solar Cells Info

Nikkei Electronics Asia, Jun 24, 2008
Source: Tech-On
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080624/153764/

Worldwide investments in the production of photovoltaic (PV) cells will rise to the same level as those for semiconductor manufacturing by 2010, due to booming demand for solar energy, according to iSuppli Corp. Global production of PV cells is expected to rise to as much as 12GW by 2010, up from 3.5GW in 2007. By 2010, as many as 400 production lines in the world that can produce at least 1MW of PV cells per year will be in place, representing a 4-fold increase from about 90 to 100 production lines in 2007. Factories capable of 1GW annual PV production also will be established to ensure continued strong delivery of PV cells to the market. (more…)

Hiroaki Kitahara (technical writer), Jun 24, 2008
Source: Tech-On
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080624/153787/

Kansai Electric Power Co Inc, Sakai City and Sharp Corp announced that they will jointly promote the Mega Solar Power Generation Plan with the aim of constructing 10MW-class solar power generation facilities on the waterfront in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. (more…)

Saeko Kushitani, Nikkei Automotive Technology Jul 2, 2008
Source: Tech-On – Tech News Straight from Asia
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080702/154232/

Mitsubishi Corp and the Tokyo Institute of Technology announced that they will cooperate on the development of infrastructure systems for charging electric vehicles with renewable energy.  To reduce the consumption of thermal and atomic power, the two parties plan to develop a system to charge electric vehicles with power generated by renewable energy such as sunlight, solar heat and wind power. And they aim to establish an infrastructure system that can reduce the total environmental load from the time of power generation to the time of driving. (more…)

Mami Akasaka, Tech-On!, Jul 4, 2008
Source: Tech-On Nikkei
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080704/154329/

Fuji Keizai Co Ltd, a Japanese market research firm, released the results of a survey on the market for energy-related systems in Japan. According to the survey, the solar cell system market in Japan will shrink in the future. Solar cell-related sales in Japan in fiscal 2007 (April 2007- March 2008) is ¥148.7 billion ($1,392 million). But this will drop to ¥114.3 billion in fiscal 2016. (more…)

Daily Trust (Abuja), 4 July 2008
Source: AllAfrica.com
http://allafrica.com/stories/200807040570.html

The cost of solar panels is very high so we decided to learn how to build solar panels plans of our own. In order to run our off rid home we would need about 3000 watts of production power and that would cost us in excess of N1.3million to buy new. Now I don’t know about you but that is a lot of money for this family.  Building our own seemed like a better option for us. All we had to do was figure out where to find the parts we needed and how to put them together. We had figured out how to build a wind generator before this, which turned out great so we figured we could do this too. (more…)

Swiss teacher travels around the world in three-wheeled, solar-powered car
by Brian Morton, Vancouver Sun, July 04, 2008
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/
story.html?id=d710575e-8941-45bd-88ee-452964a389d0

As a teen, Louis Palmer dreamed about circling the globe in a solar-powered vehicle.  On Thursday — with his dream all but realized — the 36-year-old Swiss citizen rolled into Vancouver in a three-wheeled, two-seat car that’s powered entirely by electricity produced by the sun. He’s starting the North American leg of an 18-month tour that’s taking him 50,000 kilometres through 40 countries.  “I’m showing people that we have a solution to global warming,” Palmer said in an interview. “Does it go up hills? No problem. It’s a Swiss car. At night, I travel 300 kilometres on solar power. And it’s like an ordinary car. It’s very stable and has a maximum speed of 90 km/h.” (more…)

July 07, 2008
Source: WWW.gmn Gambia News Community
http://wow.gm/africa/gambia/bwiam/article/2008/7/7/boost-for-sulayman-junkung-general-hospital

Power Up Gambia, an organisation founded by Kathryn Cunningham, a 22-year old undergraduate student, recently donated a solar system to the Sulayman Junkung General Hospital in Bwiam. The organisation which was created after its founder participated in a Cross Road Program in that hospital during the summer of 2006 has been fundraising since October 2006 for a solar system for the hospital. The organization has over this short period grown rapidly and was able to raise $260,000 towards their $300,000 goal of bringing solar power to Sulayman Junkung General Hospital. (more…)

National’s SolarMagic Technology Enables Today’s Solar Technology to Extract Significantly More Energy in Variable Light Conditions; Customer Field Trials Begin
June 30, 2008
Source: National Semiconductor Corp. press release
http://www.national.com/news/item/0,1735,1344,00.html

Building on its leadership in power management and energy-efficient products, National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE:NSM) today announced that it has entered the photovoltaic market with new technology designed to increase the overall energy output of solar electric power generating systems. National’s SolarMagic™ technology extracts the maximum power efficiency of each photovoltaic panel, even when some panels in the array are compromised by shading, debris or inherent panel-to-panel mismatch.
(more…)

By Kim Yoo-chul, Staff Reporter
TAEAN, South Chungcheong Province, Korea, 6 July 2008

LG Solar Energy, an affiliate of LG Group, has completed the nation’s biggest solar energy plant here in the western coastal region and started producing electricity.  The facility, which is the result of some 110 billion won investment by teaming up with the local government on some 300,000 square meters of land, will have a 14-megawatt total output capacity, which is enough to meet the power needs of 8,000 households around the region, a company spokesman said. (more…)

Tokyo, Japan, 7 July 2008
Source: PR-inside.com
http://www.pr-inside.com/report-toyota-plans-solar-powered-air-r688943.htm

Toyota’s ecological Prius gas-electric hybrid will become even greener next year with solar-powered air conditioning on some high-end models, The Nikkei reported Monday.  The solar panels on the roof of the new Prius model will provide 2 to 5 kilowatts of electricity, the major Japanese business daily said in a report without citing sources. Toyota Motor Corp. plans to purchase the panels from Japanese electronics maker Kyocera Corp., the newspaper said. (more…)