Solar Cells Info

By Henry Fountain, October 6, 2008
Source: New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/07/science/07obsola.html?ref=environment

Photovoltaic cells, the basic building blocks of solar panels, are more efficient and less costly than ever. But manipulating cells (which are usually made of semiconductor materials) and incorporating them into different panel designs is not necessarily easy.  John A. Rogers of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and colleagues have come up with a novel method for creating extremely thin solar cells that can be combined in flexible, even partially transparent, arrays. Described in Nature Materials, it could be called the rubber-stamp approach. (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…)

Source: SolarWorld AG, press release/ DGAP /Sept 1, 2008
http://www.dgap.de/link.php?von=19970101&typ=news&isin=DE0005108401
&sprache=en&a=10&v=en&id=298578

By conferring the SolarWorld Einstein Award SolarWorld AG again pays tribute in 2008 to trail-blazing achievements around the development of
solar power technology. The solar technology group bestows this solar award carrying the highest prize money in the photovoltaic industry upon people who have acquired special merits in the development of photovoltaic technology. The award ceremony will take place on 1 September 2008 on the
occasion of the 23rd European Photovoltaic Conference in Valencia. ‘Commitment, independent thinking and innovative strength are crucial
qualities needed to advance photovoltaic technology and thus climate-friendly power generation worldwide’, says Dipl.-Ing. Frank H.
Asbeck, Chairman and CEO of SolarWorld AG. ‘With the SolarWorld Einstein Award we want to alert people to this fact’. The SolarWorld Senior Einstein
Award for outstanding lifetime achievements is being presented for the fourth time; the SolarWorld Junior Einstein Award for young generation
scientists for the third time. (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.
(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…)

To avoid repeating the wafer fab fiasco for solar PV too, government policies to promote it must be realistic
by Dev Gupta, CTO, APSTL
Scottsdale, USA & Bangalore, India, September 23, 2008
Source: CIOL.com
http://www.ciol.com/Semicon/Solar/PV/News-Reports/
Solar-PV-industry-in-India-Strategy-for-success/23908110718/0/

Nearly four years since promoters first descended on India to hawk multi-billion dollar wafer fabs for semiconductor chips and for nearly as long since local booster associations (composed mostly of software/design types with rather thin credentials in expertise e,g. physics or materials science, critical to semiconductors) jumped on the bandwagon to advocate wafer fabs, not a single new fab has come up anywhere in India! (more…)

Nuying Huang, Taipei; Esther Lam
Source: DIGITIMES, 11 September 2008
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20080910PD216.html

While more new thin-film solar cell players from Asia are entering into polysilicon volume production in 2009, many of them have noted that their capacity has already been fully booked. However, their claimed success does hide potential risks as compared to the achievements made by leading players. Given that leading player First Solar has already introduced its cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film solar modules into volume production, smaller-scale players have looked into the segment more closely. (more…)

by Nuying Huang, Taipei; Adam Hwang
Source: DIGITIMES, 12 September 2008
http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20080912PD211.html

Taiwan’s Bureau of Energy under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is planning to invite Chinese government officials responsible for making renewable energy policies to attend a solar energy symposium tentatively scheduled for early 2009 in Taiwan, in an attempt to foster cooperation with the China government to promote the development of Taiwan’s solar energy industry including Taiwan-based solar energy makers’ investment in production in China, according to industry sources. (more…)

Press release, September 17; Michael McManus
Source: DIGITIMES, 17 September 2008
http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20080917PR203.html

Manufacturing capacity for thin-film and organic photovoltaics is expected to grow from approximately 2 GWp (Gigawatts at peak sunlight) this year to 29 GWp by 2015 according to a new report from NanoMarkets, an industry analyst firm. While First Solar will be hard to pass in the cadmium telluride (CdTe) sector, the race for dominance in the CIGS and OPV sectors has just begun. By 2015 these two sectors combined will account for 19% and 10% of aggregate capacity. At the same time, the value of manufacturing equipment purchased by thin-film PV (TFPV) and organic PV (OPV) firms will grow from US$450 million in 2008 to US$4.8 billion in 2015. (more…)

by Andy Stone, Sept 24, 2008
Source: Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/09/24/
solar-tax-credit-tech-science-cz_as_0924solar.html

Solar-generated electricity, long decried as too expensive to be practical, may have gotten a little closer to being competitive. The Senate on Tuesday approved its version of a bill that would extend income tax credits for the solar industry through 2016. The Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 would extend the 30% tax credit, which is due to expire at the end of the year, on the upfront cost of solar installations. With the 30% credit, solar cells can produce electricity for as little as 20 cents per kilowatt hour on residential rooftops, putting the cost of solar juice on par with grid electricity in states like California, where energy costs are high. The tax credit would be extended for commercial and utility-scale solar projects as well. (more…)