Solar Cells Info

Innovative Solar Panels Feature Higher Module Output and Reduce Total Installation Costs
Dallas, TX — March 18, 2009
Source: SanYo Energy Corp. press release
http://us.sanyo.com/News/SANYO-Introduces-New-HIT-Power-N-Series-Solar-Panels

SANYO Energy (U.S.A.) Corporation, a subsidiary of SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. (SANYO), a leading company for energy and environment, today introduces the HIT Power® N Series of solar panels featuring SANYO’s proprietary HIT® technology. The new series features the latest technological improvements including higher module output, lower voltage, space savings and lower installation costs that make the HIT Power® N Series the most efficient and competitive cost per kWh panels in the solar market today. The HIT Power® N Series solar panels will be available in North America from SANYO’s authorized representatives, including SunWize Technologies, Conergy and Focused Energy from April. (more…)

Kerry A. Dolan, Forbes, April 02, 2009
Source: Rediff.com
http://business.rediff.com/report/2009/apr/02/forbes-solar-power-for-rs-90-a-day.htm

Imagine a solar panel as affordable as a fancy new bicycle. A panel designed so simply that you can install one (or more) yourself, just outside your windows, in the course of an afternoon.  That’s the concept behind Oakland, Calif.-based Veranda Solar, a start-up founded last year by Capra J’neva and Emilie Fetscher, recent graduates of the product design program at Stanford University. J’neva and Fetscher dreamed up attractive, flower-shaped solar panels as part of their master’s project at the design school. “We created a starter solar system that expands as your budget does,” J’neva says. (more…)

Source: DIGITIMES, Press release; Jessie Shen, 27 March 2009
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090327PR201.html

The global photovoltaic (PV) market is set to contract for the first time in 2009 in terms of new installations, according to IMS Research.  IMS Research’s ongoing analysis shows that although the PV market doubled in 2008 in megawatt (MW) terms, a contraction in shipments is anticipated in 2009. The contraction will be caused by the sudden drop-off in demand from Spain, with its newly implemented 500MW cap. This is likely to result in a shortfall of some 1.5-2GW in 2009. Although this will in part be counter-balanced by growth in Italy and Eastern Europe, the dramatic decline of the Spanish market will lead to an overall drop in worldwide shipments. (more…)

Investment Could Lead to Thousands of New Jobs
Washington, DC – March 20, 2009
Source: US Dept of Energy, press release
http://www.energy.gov/news2009/7078.htm
Energy Secretary Steven Chu today offered a $535 million loan guarantee for Solyndra, Inc. to support the company’s construction of a commercial-scale manufacturing plant for its proprietary cylindrical solar photovoltaic panels. The company expects to create thousands of new jobs in the U.S. while deploying its solar panels across the U.S. and around the world. (more…)

Source: AZONano.com, Feb 5, 2009
http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=9749
Despite a sluggish forecast for the overall high-tech industry in 2009, nanomaterials for solar cells grew 47% in 2008 and is projected to grow another 44% in 2009, according to a report Market Outlook for Nanomaterials for Electronics Applications: Semiconductors, Solar, Displays. Sensors, RFID, Lighting recently published by The Information Network, a New Tripoli, PA-based market research company. (more…)

By Alan J. Heavens, The Philadelphia Inquirer, 13 Feb 2009
Source: San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/homeandgarden/ci_11699095?nclick_check=1

You may not be able to spend thousands of dollars to convert your house to solar power. But there are smaller, less expensive ways to do your environmental part with the sun’s help.  Many solar products are available, though there are limits to what some can do. Still, anything to reduce your carbon footprint is worth doing. (more…)

Asia’s dominance in producing solar cells and panels is expected to grow as more European and American companies set up factories while Asian companies do the same, says a new solar report from Greentech Media.
by: Ucilia Wang, February 12, 2009
Source: GreenTechMedia.com
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/go-east-solar-companies-5679.html

Asia already has more solar equipment manufacturing capacity than other regions in the world. That dominance will likely grow.  By 2012, Asia (including Japan) could produce 82 percent of the world’s crystalline silicon solar cells, up from 71 percent in 2008, according to a new GTM Research report, “PV Technology, Production and Cost, 2009 Forecast: The Anatomy of a Shakeout.”  The news might not be embraced by those in the United States hoping to ensure that federal legislation is in place to help solar companies make their products in the U.S. instead of abroad. (more…)

In Tough Economy, Homeboy Industries Trains Ex-Cons for Brighter Prospects
By MIRIAM JORDAN, Los Angeles, Feb. 14, 2009
Source: Wall Street Journal Online
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB123457326090086555.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

When Albert Ortega was released from prison four months ago, he was determined to turn his life around. So he went green.  Mr. Ortega sports tattoos of an Aztec warrior on his back, a dragon on his chest and the name of his former gang, the East Side Wilmas, rings his biceps. Drug trafficking kept him locked up for most of the past seven years, he says. But after serving his last term, for 18 months, he heard about a solar-panel installation course.  “I wanted a new way of life,” says the tall, brawny 34-year-old. “Solar puts me on the cutting edge.” (more…)

Suntech’s Shi Zhengrong built one of the world’s biggest solar-power companies. Now, with economies slowing, he faces the challenge of a lifetime.
By Bill Powell, senior writer, February 11, 2009:
Source: CNNMoney.com/FORTUNE
http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/11/news/international/powell_shi.fortune/

On a chilly Saturday afternoon in mid-January, Shi Zhengrong, casually dressed and smiling as if he didn’t have a care in the world, walked into the stunning new building that is now the headquarters of Suntech Power Holdings, the company he founded and built from scratch just eight years ago.  (more…)

Source: ScienceDaily, Feb. 10, 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090210125531.htm

A team of Los Alamos researchers led by Victor Klimov has shown that carrier multiplication—when a photon creates multiple electrons—is a real phenomenon in tiny semiconductor crystals and not a false observation born of extraneous effects that mimic carrier multiplication. The research, explained in a recent issue of Accounts of Chemical Research, shows the possibility of solar cells that create more than one unit of energy per photon. (more…)