Solar Cells Info

Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com / Jan 17, 2008
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=51152

In the race to make solar cells cheaper and more efficient, many researchers and start-up companies are betting on new designs that exploit nanostructures — materials engineered on the scale of a billionth of a meter. Using nanotechnology, researchers can experiment with and control how a material generates, captures, transports, and stores free electrons — properties that are important for the conversion of sunlight into electricity.  “We initially thought that the best we might do is get results as good as the sum of the two, and maybe if we didn’t make this right, we’d get something worse. But surprisingly, these materials were much better.” –Jin Zhang, Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Santa Cruz
(more…)

ScienceDaily, Jan. 17, 2008
Source: ScienceDaily.com
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080114101837.htm
Adapted from materials provided by Durham University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

A national team of scientists led by experts at Durham University are embarking on one of the UK’s largest ever research projects into photovoltaic (PV) solar energy.  The £6.3million PV-21 programme will focus on making thin-film light absorbing cells for solar panels from sustainable and affordable materials.  The four-year project, which begins in April (2008), is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the SUPERGEN initiative.
(more…)

Jan 21, 2008
Source: FabTech.org
http://www.fabtech.org/content/view/6001/

Although they both participate in the emerging copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaics sector, Ascent Solar Technology and International Solar Electric Technology (ISET) have at least as many differences between them as things in common. Ascent’s PV roots go back to work begun at ITN Energy Systems in the early 1990s, while ISET first hung out its shingle in March 1985. ITN created Ascent in 2005, and the new venture has been publicly traded since 2006, while ISET has been and remains fiercely independent. Ascent’s process technology uses vacuum-based coevaporation and sputtering, yet ISET favors a nonvacuum ink-print/selenization approach. Both use molybdenum for back contacts and zinc oxide for their front contacts, although ISET adds ITO to the front. ISET’s current manufacturing strategy employs batch processing on glass, while Ascent pursues a roll-to-roll production scheme, with flexible plastic as its substrate of choice. Ascent is based in Littleton, Colorado; ISET calls Chatsworth home, in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley.
(more…)

Jan 14, 2008
Source: FabTech.Org
http://www.fabtech.org/content/view/5956/

Few solar photovoltaic sectors exhibit as volatile a combination of hype and promise as the copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) thin-film segment. A handful of companies–Global Solar, Wurth, Showa Shell, for example—are already manufacturing relatively modest amounts of commercial products using CIGS (or its cousin, CIS) films on glass, stainless steel, or flexible substrates, while a larger number are just developing (or trying to develop) processes, building and characterizing (or trying to build and characterize) pilot or initial manufacturing lines, or talking (and talking) about building volume-manufacturing facilities. (more…)

GE’s solar development featured in Applied Physics Letters
Source: GE Power/BusinessWire /press release /17 Jan 2008
Niskuyana, N.Y,  17 Jan 2008
http://www.prdomain.com/companies/G/GeneralElectric/newsreleases/200811851643.htm

GE Global Research, the centralized research organization of the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), announced that scientists on their Nano Photovoltaics (PV) team have demonstrated a scalable silicon nanowire-based solar cell, which has the potential to achieve up to 18% efficiency and be produced at a dramatically lower cost than conventional solar cells. This demonstration represents a promising development in the effort to make PV systems more economically viable for consumers.
(more…)

Source: Angola Press Agency (Luanda), 4 January 2008
http://allafrica.com/stories/200801040754.html

The Spanish Fortis Bank will spend this year USD 5.9 million to invest in the installation of solar energy systems, in various localities of the central Huambo Province. This was revealed this Friday to ANGOP by a source of the firm “Saema”, which is in charge of implementing this project.

Initially, the project will cover 23 localities of the mentioned province. The source also informed that this move is part of the province’s social development project, aimed at reducing the costs with electricity, improving sanitary conditions and people’s living standards.

By Cody Kraatz, Bay Area News Group / Jan 2, 2008
Source: San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_7865498?nclick_check=1

A group of residents is trying to put the sun in Sunnyvale and turn the city into a sea of rooftop photovoltaic panels and solar water heaters with a grassroots group-buy program. “The whole purpose for our group is to maximize and accelerate the adoption of solar energy,” said James Tuleya, a Sunnyvale Cool Cities Team leader spearheading the solar program, which is also hosting a series of educational seminars.
(more…)

Gloria Spire Solar Installing a 308kW Solar System for The Lee Company; One of the Largest Solar Projects in New England
Bedford, Mass., Jan. 7, 2008
Source: Spire Corp. press release
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=76421&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1092245&highlight=

Gloria Spire Solar, LLC, a joint venture company formed by solar industry leaders Spire Corporation (Nasdaq: SPIR) and Gloria Solar Co., Ltd., today announced that it has won a contract to design and install a 308-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) solar electric system at The Lee Company’s manufacturing facility in Westbrook, Connecticut. This is the largest solar electric system to be installed for a manufacturing company in Connecticut, and one of the largest in New England.

The system, consisting of 1,760 photovoltaic panels on the roof of the newly constructed facility, is approximately half the size of a football field, covering nearly 29,000 square feet of roof space. At peak power, the system will generate enough electricity to cleanly provide 17 percent of the manufacturing facility’s power consumption. This is equivalent to the power usage of 34 homes for one full year. In addition, this installation will eliminate the emission of 282 tons of carbon dioxide associated with combusting conventional fossil fuels.
(more…)

By 2050 solar power could end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and slash greenhouse gas emissions
By Ken Zweibel, James Mason and Vasilis Fthenakis
Scientific American Magazine –  December 16, 2007
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan&page=1

High prices for gasoline and home heating oil are here to stay. The U.S. is at war in the Middle East at least in part to protect its foreign oil interests. And as China, India and other nations rapidly increase their demand for fossil fuels, future fighting over energy looms large. In the meantime, power plants that burn coal, oil and natural gas, as well as vehicles everywhere, continue to pour millions of tons of pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually, threatening the planet.
(more…)

Waterloo, ON, Jan. 7, 2008
Source. Arise Technologies Corp. press release
http://www.arisetech.com/content/view/169/98/

ARISE Technologies Corporation (“ARISE” or the “Company”) (TSX: APV) is pleased to announce that its Silicon Feedstock Mini Pilot Plant is now operational and that polysilicon has successfully been produced in the Silicon Refining Furnace (SiRF(TM: 104.64, +0.70, +0.67%)). The Mini Pilot Plant is located at the Company’s Waterloo facility.
(more…)