Solar Cells Info

HelioVolt’s FASST® Manufactures High Quality CIGS Using Both Vacuum and
Non-Vacuum Deposition Techniques
Austin, Texas, July 24, 2008
Source. HelioVolt Corp press release

HelioVolt Corporation, a producer of highly-efficient thin film solar energy products, today announced that it has garnered an R&D 100 Award from Research & Development (R&D) Magazine for work performed in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Known as the “Oscars of Invention,” the R&D 100 Awards celebrate the year’s most significant commercial innovations from around the world. HelioVolt and NREL received the award for demonstrating a simpler, faster end-to-end process for printing high quality thin film photovoltaic (PV) systems. (more…)

Flagship Manufacturing Facility to Provide 160 New Green Jobs
Austin, Texas, Oct 24, 2008
Source: HelioVolt Corp. press release
http://www.heliovolt.net//index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=134&Itemid=95

Today HelioVolt Corporation will cut the ribbon on its first factory for manufacturing high-performance thin film solar energy products. The 122,400 square foot sustainable facility in Austin, Texas is expected to create approximately 160 new jobs for the U.S.’s growing renewable energy sector. City officials, state and federal representatives, and energy industry leaders will join HelioVolt executives and staff in dedicating the new solar factory. (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.
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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.”
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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…)

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…)

German Company Creates 1,000 New Jobs in Oregon

HILLSBORO, Oregon., Oct 17, 2008
Source: SolarWorld AG press release /DGAP
http://www.solarworld.de/Press.30.0.html?&L=1

SolarWorld AG is opening the largest solar cell production facility in the USA today. In Hillsboro, Oregon, the German company is investing 500 million US dollars in highly advanced technology. In an integrated manufacturing process wafer-thin silicon discs, the so-called solar wafers, as well as solar cells will be produced with an initial capacity of 100 Megawatt (MW) annually. At their final destination – on the roof or in a larger power plant – this equates to the electricity requirements of 100,000 people. The company announced that the capacity will be expanded to 500 Megawatt in the next three years. (more…)

First Final Acceptance Test Certification of Applied Materials SunFab™ Thin Film Line Achieved in Only Seven
Months After Start of Installation
Menlo Park, CA, October 13, 2008
Source: Signet Solar, press release/Businesswire
http://www.signetsolar.com/in%20the%20news/index.htm

Signet Solar, a global manufacturer of thin film silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules, today announced that it has begun volume production at its manufacturing facility in Mochau, Germany, after receiving Final Acceptance Test (FAT) certification from SGS Germany GmbH, one of Europe’s leading providers of certifications, accreditations and approvals. Applied Materials, Inc., a leading provider of nanomanufacturing technology solutions and supplier of the SunFab™ production line to Signet, hailed the FAT approval as a significant step in the industrialization of solar photovoltaics. (more…)

By Christopher Martin, October 14, 2008
Source: Bloomberg.com
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a_4DuuzPC0gA

SunPower Corp. and Suntech Power Holdings Co., solar manufacturers that lost half their value in the past month, are counting on tax credits in the U.S. bank bailout bill to boost sales as European incentives wane.  Utilities, warehouses and retailers from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to Whole Foods Market Inc. can deduct 30 percent of a solar system’s cost from federal income taxes. The savings are part of the $700 billion legislation to bolster the banking industry, which also contained tax breaks for wind power and fuel cells.
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