Solar Cells Info

By Paul Buckley, Winchester, UK, 20 April 2009
Source: EETimes/Power Management

Sunfilm, AG (Grossroehrsdorf, Germany) and Applied Materials, Inc., (Santa Clara, California) have revealed that the world’s first tandem junction SunFab Thin Film Line installed at Sunfilm’s Grossroehrsdorf facility has achieved factory acceptance.  Using 5.7m² substrates, the line passed final acceptance test certification, verifying that it has met specifications for producing solar photovoltaic modules with efficiencies of up to eight percent, as well as yield and overall annual capacity specifications. The line is now beginning volume production. (more…)

by Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media
Source: Semiconductor International, 22 May 2009

Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. (Tokyo) announced today that it has broken its own record for the highest energy conversion efficiency for a crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell in a practical size (≥100 cm2). Sanyo’s proprietary HIT (heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer) photovoltaic cell conversion efficiency has been boosted from 22.3% to 23.0% at the research level, as validated by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). (more…)

by Christoph Hammerschmidt, EE Times Europe
05/25/2009 5:03 PM
Munich, Germany, 25 May 2009
Source: EETimes
http://eetimes.eu/germany/217600808

A team of researchers at the Stuttgart university has achieved an efficiency record for laser-processed solar cells based on crystalline silicon. The manufacturing process is fit for industrial volume production, the research group claims.  The postgraduate research group led by Jürgen Köhler managed to produce crystalline silicon solar cells with an efficiency of 19 percent. Hitherto, this technology was limited to 16 percent.  In the normal solar cell manufacturing, the pn junction is achieved in a high-temperature process in a diffusion furnace. The Stuttgart research group however used a pulsed laser beam instead in order to achieve the doping. (more…)

by Nuying Huang, Taipei; Adam Hwang,
Source: DIGITIMES, 16 April 2009
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090416PD217.html

Taiwan exported 900MWp of crystalline silicon solar cells in 2008, taking up 16.4% of the total 5.5GWp of photovoltaic (PV) systems installed around the world, according to the Photovoltaics Technology Center (PTC) under the government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan. (more…)

Source: ScienceDaily, Apr. 10, 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090409151444.htm

In the race to renewable energy, organic solar cells are now really starting to take off. They can be manufactured easily and cheaply, they have low environmental impact, and since they are compatible with flexible substrates, they could be used in many applications such as packaging, clothing, flexible screens, or for recharging cell phones and laptops.  Teams at the Laboratoire d’ingénierie moléculaire d’Angers in Angers (CNRS/Université d’Angers) and at the Laboratoire des matériaux, surfaces et procédés pour la catalyse in Strasbourg (CNRS/Université Strasbourg 1) have recently obtained record conversion efficiency with solar cells based on organic molecules. (more…)

by Russell Gold, Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2009
Source:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123930640357406039.html

In a bid to drive down costs, BP Solar, a subsidiary of oil giant BP PLC, says it will increasingly rely on third-party suppliers to build solar cells and modules.  The decision last month to close a manufacturing facility outside Madrid and partially close another near Baltimore was “designed to get us out of manufacturing that is not competitive,” says Rayed Fezzani, chief executive of BP Solar. He said BP would contract with companies to supply the material, which would still carry BP’s warranty and brand name. More than 600 BP workers were laid off in the plant closings. (more…)

by Mami Akasaka, Tech-On!, April 15, 2009
Source: Tech-On English
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20090417/168926/?ST=english_PRINT

The Japan Patent Office announced the results of its survey on trends in solar cell-related patent applications. According to the results, Japanese applicants took the lead in the area of silicon solar cells, while European applicants outpaced the others in the area of organic semiconductor solar cells.  About 7,970 solar cell-related patents were filed around the world during the period between 2000 and 2006. By nationality, Japanese applications accounted for 68.4%, far more than European (15.3%) and US (10.6%) applications. (more…)

by Jon Kalish / How To Build Your Own Solar Backpack
Source: NPR.org  – Weekend Edition Sunday, April 19, 2009
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103230940

Even before the economy tanked, interest was growing in the do-it-yourself movement. The DIY ethic embraces the notion of recycling and repurposing objects, snatching things from the jaws of the landfill and making them useful again.  Here, a look at how to make something that anyone with an iPod could use: a solar-powered charging backpack. (more…)

SARASOTA, Fla., April 14, 2009
Source: Sunovia Energy Technologies Press release/PRNewsWire
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?
ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-14-2009/0005005704

Sunovia Energy Technologies, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SUNV) (hereinafter “Sunovia”) and EPIR Technologies, Inc. (hereinafter ‘EPIR’ and collectively with Sunovia, ‘the Partners’ or ‘the Partnership’) announce the receipt of a $9 million Defense Department SBIR Phase III contract that allows for the expansion of production capacities and capabilities of the Partners’ cadmium telluride on silicon (CdTe/Si) manufacturing program. (more…)

by Yasuhiko Takeda, Naohiko Kato, and Tatsuo Toyoda, 15 April 2009,
Source: SPIE Newsroom. DOI: 10.1117/2.1200903.1581
http://spie.org/x34404.xml?highlight=x2358&ArticleID=x34404

A new type of dye-sensitized solar-cell module has achieved transparency and color choice, facilitating mass production.  Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) offer various advantages, including freedom of design as well as lower costs and energy consumption, in production processes as compared to silicon-based solar cells.1,2 Monolithic series-interconnected modules—characterized by a structure similar to that of amorphous-silicon solar-cell architectures—are the most promising DSC-module type for mass production.3 However, these modules neutralize the unique transparency advantage of DSCs, because they use black, carbon-based counter electrodes (CEs) as well as rutile-based opaque separators between the photo-electrodes of porous anatase and the corresponding CEs. (more…)