Solar Cells Info

By Andy Vuong. The Denver Post / 31 Dec 2008
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_11339744

Ilan Caplan and his wife, Amy Berkowitz Caplan, had solar panels installed on their home in Lowry a year ago. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post ). Ilan Caplan took the plunge last December and had 14 solar panels installed on the roof of his 2,900-square- foot home in Lowry.  The 2.87-kilowatt photovoltaic system — enough to generate about 75 percent of his family’s power needs — cost about $9,000 after rebates from Xcel Energy. He also received a $2,000 tax credit from the federal government.  Caplan has saved nearly $1,000 on utility bills and estimates that the cost of the system will be recovered in just more than seven years.  “I wished we would’ve done it earlier,” said Caplan, a finance director for a wind-power company based in California. (more…)

WorldWater & Solar Technologies Completes Solar Installation at Valley Center Municipal Water District
Ewing, N.J. – January 5, 2009
http://www.worldwater.com/PDFdocuments/Valley-Center-Complete.pdf

WorldWater & Solar Technologies Corp. (OTC BB: WWAT.OB), developer and marketer of proprietary high-horsepower solar systems, today announced that it has completed installation of a 1.1 MW solar power system for the Valley Center Municipal Water District (VCMWD) of Valley Center, California. (more…)

Source: Ohio.com / Jan 07, 2009
http://www.ohio.com/news/ap?articleID=1403197&c=y

Ohio is taking another step in its attempt to turn the state into a hub for the renewable energy industry by offering grants to increase the use of solar and wind power.  The new program isn’t big, but development officials say it will help an industry that could create thousands of jobs in Ohio.  The state says the $3.5 million program for residential projects will lead to 260 wind turbines and 200 solar hot water systems. (more…)

By Elaine Rundle, Jan 7, 2009,
source: Govtech.com
http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/579331

Cities wanting to remove the guesswork from solar power installations are turning to friendlier technology for citizens. Since typing a street address into a Web site is all it takes to determine how much solar power can be obtained from a rooftop installation, who wouldn’t take a look?  An exemplar is the San Francisco Solar Map that lets residents view buildings that are equipped with solar power. Users also can type their address into the Solar Map site to get an analysis of how much solar power their roof could harness.  (SF Solar map site URL:  http://sf.solarmap.org/) (more…)

Source: Business Standar Reporter
Chennai/ Bangalore December 17, 2008, 20:24 IST

SEMI, the global industry body of the microelectronic, display and photovoltaic (PV) industries, has formally marked its presence in India by setting up an office in Bangalore.  Having the solar photovoltaic market as its initial area of focus out of India, SEMI will form a PV advisory committee comprising executives from major solar cell, module, equipment and material manufacturers to support various SEMI initiatives in India, Paul Davis, executive vice-president of SEMI, said. (more…)

Company Poised to Address a Market Opportunity for Its Innovative BioBacksheetTM Product
Santa Clarita, CA,   December 22, 2008
Source: BioSolar Inc, press release
http://www.biosolar.com/view_news.php?id=41&PHPSESSID=c1d6b530faada0ae10cf49d3f6298402

BioSolar, Inc. “is ushering in the inherent benefits of biomass by leading a pioneering effort to reduce the costs of solar modules by replacing petroleum-based solar panel components with durable biomass-based materials,” according to a web exclusive article posted December 10, 2008 on the website of BioMass Magazine. The article features BioSolar’s BioBacksheetTM, a protective covering for photovoltaic solar cells made from renewable plant sources, rather than the expensive petroleum-based film currently in use. This protective covering is needed in virtually all solar panels. (more…)

by Energy Matters, Australia
Source:
http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=255

A recent report from the European Union’s Joint Research Center Institute for Energy  shows continued massive increases in the annual growth rate of global solar cell production. Growth in production averaged 40% over five years ; peaking at 60% in 2007 when solar cell production reached 4 GWp. The solar panel sector has become an AUD $28.5 billion a year business and is expect to grow to AUD $85.5 billion in 2010, while still seeing price drops on solar panels for end consumers.  Sharp Corporation is now the number one solar cell manufacturer followed by Q-cells and Suntech. The market share of the ten largest solar cell manufacturers has eroded from 80% in 2004 to 57% in 2007 due to an increasing number of companies entering the solar cell production market, predominantly in China and Taiwan. (more…)

Source: Northern California Solar Energy Association
http://www.norcalsolar.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=154

1.  Preface

The following Bay Area Solar Installations Report is another educational effort put forth by the Northern California Solar Energy Association (NorCal Solar) towards its mission: To foster the development and application of solar energy technology through the exchange of information.

Since 1975 NorCal Solar, then known as NCSEA, has promoted solar education and fostered the exchange of information through many venues.  Today, from our website www.norcalsolar.org where we maintain a world-wide electronic ‘portal’ of resources on solar and other renewable energy technologies to our Solar Energy Resource Guide, a publication sold locally while supporting independent reports, studies and classrooms as well as many consumer information and workshops in-between.  This year NorCal Solar was a co-organizer of the American Solar Energy Association’s conference, Solar 2008, in San Diego where NorCal helped to organize more than 70 consumer workshops.  NorCal Solar also participated in the conference committee of the first ever InterSolar Conference in North America.  This conference was held in San Francisco where 13,000 visitors received the latest information about the advances of the international solar industry.  This was an amazing experience to learn about the reaches of solar into the international markets.

(more…)

Fontana, CA, Dec 2, 2008
Source: BusinessWeek.com
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D94QLF0O1.htm

Utility officials said the largest solar panel installation in the state has been completed — the first of some 150 solar projects planned for warehouse and factory roofs in Southern California. The 600,000 square feet of solar panels on the roof of a distribution center in Fontana, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles, will produce enough electricity to power as many as 1,300 homes, said Ted Craver, chairman and chief executive of energy company Edison International on Monday. (more…)

by Motonobu Kawai, Nikkei Microdevices, Nov 28, 2008
Source: TechOn
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20081128/162005/

Sharp announced that it will start full-scale mass production of its crystalline Si solar cells with a cell conversion efficiency of 20% in 2010.  “It is going to be more powerful than any other residential crystalline silicon solar cell,” said Toshishige Hamano, executive vice president of Sharp Corp.
(more…)