Solar Cells Info

With waning subsidies and other attractive markets, can Spain maintain its lead in solar tech?
By Carolyn Whelan, October 20, 2008
Source: Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=is-the-sun-setting-on-solar-power-in-spain

On the outskirts of Seville, Spain, 600 rotating mirrors send shafts of light to a collector atop a soaring 380-foot- (115-meter-) tall tower. Its scalding 480-degree-Fahrenheit (250-degree-Celsius) steam drives a turbine generating a peak capacity of 11 megawatts (MW) of electricity for the national grid. This “power tower” is the first of nine to be built by Spanish engineering giant Abengoa Solar, which all told will produce enough electricity for 153,000 homes by 2013. (more…)

Source. DEAdirect.com, 23.10.2008
http://www.deadirect.co.uk/News/Micro-Generation/October-2008/
Village-hall-gets-photovoltaic-solar-panels?id=1260

A village community hall in the Lake District has been equipped with a photovoltaic roof as part of a £100,000 refurbishment.  The new roof has been paid for through donations and grants including the Lake District National Park and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.  Based on silicon, the photovoltaic solar panels convert the sun’s light into energy, which could be used to power the Lowick Community Hall directly or be fed into the national grid. (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…)

Consortium of Deutsche Bank AG, Solarparc AG and Spanish Partners
Source: SolarWorld AG press release/DGAP /October 2, 2008

Together with a consortium of Deutsche Bank AG, the Spanish ecoEnergias and  Solarparc AG the SolarWorld Group created a 30 Megawatt (MW) solar park in the Autonomous Community of Extremadura in the Southwest of Spain. The solar power plant located in the vicinity of the two towns of Mérida and Don Alvaro possesses a double axis tracking system to track the sun which makes it one of the largest solar projects of its kind internationally. (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…)

Mochau, August 18, 2008
Source: Signet Solar, press release
http://www.signetsolar.com/in%20the%20news/index.htm

The first thin-film modules made by Signet Solar are awaiting installation in Hohenlauft in the Rural District of Doebeln as from October 2008. The Rural District of Doebeln is currently setting up a free-space solar plant in Hohenlauft near Doebeln at the total cost of Euro 1.6 million. Upon its completion in November 2008, it is expected to have a capacity of 250 kW. Both crystalline and thin-film modules are going to be installed. Signet Solar, a manufacturer of thin-film solar modules, is supplying this project with 1,580 modules of a total capacity of 130 kWp to be installed in Hohenlauft from October 2008. (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…)

Albuquerque, NM, Oct 13, 2008
Source: Ådvent Solar press release/PRNewswire
http://adventsolar.com/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=35

Advent Solar, Inc., a leading manufacturer of innovative solar cells and modules, today announced an agreement with Deutsche Solar AG, a subsidiary of SolarWorld AG and one of the largest global producers of mono- and multi-crystalline silicon wafers for the photovoltaic (PV) industry. Under the agreement, Deutsche Solar will provide Advent Solar with its SOLSIX(R) wafers through 2018 with a total value of more than $350M. This steady silicon wafer supply will enable Advent Solar’s rapid business expansion through the introduction and delivery of next-generation solar modules based on its Ventura Technology, the solar industry’s first comprehensive cell-to-module solar architecture. (more…)

By Simon Clark, Sept. 24, 2008
Source: Bloomberg.com
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aESker8lE5B4

As the sun rises over Seville in southern Spain, its blinding light bounces on a field of 624 mirrors surrounded by sunflowers.  The moving mirrors reflect sunbeams onto a 115-meter-high white tower that uses the concentrated heat to boil water, making steam that spins an electric turbine 97 times a second. This is Europe’s first commercial solar-thermal-electricity plant, at the forefront of a growing movement for green power. (more…)

Source: SemiconductorToday.com,  23 September 2008
http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2008/SEPT/FRAUNHOFER_230908.htm

After in mid-July announcing a European record of 37.6% for solar cell efficiency, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) of Freiburg, Germany has achieved a new record of 39.7% (closer to the world record of 40.8% set in August by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory).  The new cell uses the same metamorphic (lattice mismatched) triple-junction structures consisting of more than 30 layers (including Ga0.35In0.65P, Ga0.83In0.17As and Ge) grown on a germanium substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using a reactor from Aixtron of Aachen, Germany. However, the higher efficiency has been achieved by improving the contact structures of the solar cells through using a front-side network of thin metal wires that transport large currents but with low resistance, according to Frank Dimroth, head of the III-V – Epitaxy and Solar Cells Group. (more…)