Solar Cells Info

Solon, Ohio, Nov. 8, 2007
Source: Energy Focus Inc. press release
http://www.mkr-group.com/EFOI/index.shtml

Energy Focus Inc. (Nasdaq: EFOI – News) announced today that it has been awarded a $1 million contract by the DuPont-University of Delaware Very High Efficiency Solar Cell (VHESC) Consortium to develop advanced solar cell technologies as part of DARPA’s ground breaking VHESC project with the Consortium. Energy Focus was honored earlier this year by DARPA with the 2007 DARPATech Small Business Innovation Research Award for Excellence for its work with DARPA.
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Michael Hoffman, Nov. 4, 2007
Source: Dailytech.com
http://www.dailytech.com/article9345.htm

Sharp will try to snap a larger share of a growing market.   Sharp Corp. officials reported the company plans to increase production of thin-film silicon solar cells over the next year at a Sharp plant located in the Nara Prefecture, Japan.  The increased production is directly related to a global shortage of silicon, company officials said.  Sharp is currently the No. 1 maker of solar cells in the world. (more…)

October 18, 2007
Source: Solid State Technology
http://sst.pennnet.com/display_article/309588/5/ARTCL/
none/none/1/IMEC-touts-record-efficiencies-in-Si,-Ge-solar-cells/

IMEC says it has achieved >17% efficiency with thin-film silicon solar cells, and says >20% efficiencies “are definitely within reach.” Meanwhile, the research group says it is nearing the theoretical efficiency limits of Ge solar cells.  IMEC’s work involves an “i-PERC process” that replaces the Al backsurface field on a Si solar cell with thin silicon layers (<180nm) to create Al-alloyed contacts covering the entire rear side of the cell. The rear is passivated with a dielectric stack in which contact openings are realized by laser ablation. An Al contact layer is evaporated and fired in a belt-line furnace to create local back-surface fields.
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Aliso Viejo, CA.,  May 15, 2007
Source: XSunX.com press release
http://www.xsunx.com/news.aspx?news=46

XsunX, Inc. (XSNX), developer of advanced manufacturing systems and cell structures for solar energy, today announced that Lambda Energia S.A. de V.C., a company pursuing manufacturing opportunities in renewable energy,  has entered into agreements with XsunX for the delivery by XsunX of 25 mega-watts of thin film photovoltaic production equipment, valued at over $41 million U.S. Dollars.
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Waterloo, Ontario,  13 August 2007
Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=49625

Last week, Arise Technologies Corp. announced it’s wholly owned subsidiary ARISE Technologies Deutschland GmbH, entered into an agreement to purchase a 13 hectare site from the City of Bischofswerda, Germany. In conjunction, an agreement with HOCHTIEF Construction AG to construct the company’s first solar cell manufacturing plant in Bischofswerda was also announced.
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Andrew McCathie, DPA
Freiberg, Germany, June 14, 2007
Source: Eux.TV
http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=9854

Lying in the middle of what was once communist East Germany and shrouded for months under a leaden grey wintry sky, the small 800-year-old town of Freiberg would appear to be an unlikely new centre for the burgeoning global solar energy industry.  But more than 17 years after a popular uprising swept away the Soviet-backed East German state, a network of wind energy farms and new alternative energy companies have been springing up around Freiberg.
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Geoffrey Ramos, AHN News Writer,
Manila, Philippines, June 15, 2007
Source: All Headline News
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007652712

Chinese power firm Sichuan Electric Power Co. is considering the development of a $1 billion-solar and wind farm in the northern part of the Philippines.  Special Envoy for China Francis Chua confirmed Sichuan’s proposed plan, which was one of the major business investments discussed during President Gloria Arroyo’s recent visit to China.
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New Launch expands “eco friendly” partnership
Montreal, Canada, May 29, 2007
Source: ICP Solar Technologies Inc. press release
http://www.icpsolar.com/4105/news_details.asp?news_id=26

ICP Solar Technologies Inc. today announced that it has launched its 2007 Coleman® Solar Charger programme at Wal-Mart’s (NYSE:WMT) Sam’s Club division for Samsclub.com  The new range of latest generation thin-film solar panels has recently begun to hit the warehouse club’s website at samsclub.com. This Coleman line of portable solar chargers is designed for outdoor enthusiasts to provide backup or primary power for vehicles such as automobiles, boats, RVs and also for remote living applications The Coleman panels are up to 50% more efficient than competitively branded thin-film amorphous solar chargers on similar “mass merchant” retail shelves in the USA.
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Office Marks Expansion to California’s Wine Country
Los Gatos, CA, May 7, 2007
source: Akeena Solar, Inc. press release
http://www.akeena.net/cm/Investor%20Relations/Home.html

Akeena Solar, Inc. — one of the largest solar installers in the country — acquired certain assets of Alternative Energy Inc. (AEI) of Santa Rosa. Under the terms of the agreement, Akeena will assume AEI’s backlog, and commence a marketing campaign to take advantage of the solar power opportunities in Sonoma and Napa Counties.
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Sandia invention to make parabolic trough solar collector systems more energy efficient – Simple design of new technology excites solar industry

Albuquerque, N.M., May 15, 2007
Source: Sandia National Lab /press release
http://www.sandia.gov/news/resources/releases/2007/trough.html

A mirror alignment measurement device, invented by Rich Diver, a researcher at Sandia National Laboratories, may soon make one of the most popular solar collector systems, parabolic troughs, more affordable and energy efficient.  Diver’s new theoretical overlay photographic (TOP) technology is drawing interest from the solar industry because of its simplicity and the need to find solutions for global warming.
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