Solar Cells Info

New Screen Printing and Silicon Growth Processes Result in More Efficient and Cost Effective Cells and Modules

Press Release from BP Solar
October 16, 2006, San Jose, CA

BP Solar today unveiled its new Mono2 prototype module at the opening of the Solar Power 2006 Conference and Exhibition. The new product combines BP Solar’s recently announced silicon growth process with a new screen printing process, called Nuline(TM), to improve solar cell and overall module efficiency. Mono2 products will offer the efficiency and appearance of mono-crystalline products at a production cost similar to multi-crystalline products.

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With enough power for 1,000 average homes, Google’s will be the largest solar electricity installation of any company in the country.

By Mark LaPedus/ EE Times  Oct 17, 2006
source:
http://www.informationweek.com/industries/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193303376

SAN JOSE, Calif. — EI Solutions, the systems integration arm of Energy Innovations Inc., will begin constructing a solar electricity system for Google’s Mountain View, Calif.-based headquarters.

With a total capacity of 1.6 megawatts — enough to supply 1,000 average California homes — Google’s headquarters will be the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the United States and one of the largest on any corporate site in the world, according to the search engine specialist.

The project will involve 9,212 solar panels provided by Sharp Electronics. A majority will be placed on the rooftops of some of the buildings in the “Googleplex” and parking lots. The solar energy will be used to power several of Google’s Mountain View office facilities.

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Spruce Line™ Photovoltaic Modules of Evergreen Solar : 190, 180 & 170W

Spruce Line™ Photovoltaic Module

Designed to deliver the best in performance and dependability from Evergreen Solar’s patented String Ribbon™ technology.

Superior Performance
* Maximum power up to 4% above rated, minimum power only 2% below rated
* Anti-reflection cover glass delivers more energy
* Power calibrated by three renowned independent tests laboratories

Extreme Durability
* Backed by a 25 year limited power warranty; 2 year workmanship warranty
* A rigid, double walled, deep frame with integrated water drainage holes
* Crimped frame corners – no screws to ever come loose
* Sealed junction box never needs field maintenance

Leading Environmental Credentials
* Low energy – an energy payback time as rapid as 18 months, up to 40% faster than other leading crystalline technologies
* Low carbon – only 30g of carbon dioxide emissions per equivalent kWh of electricity generated, up to 33% less than other leading crystalline technologies
* Low lead – use of lead-free solder for all String Ribbon solar cell inter-connections

Evergreen Solar Announces $100 Million Sales Agreement With Mainstream Energy, LLC

MARLBORO, Mass., Oct 16, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) —

Evergreen Solar, Inc. (Nasdaq: ESLR), a manufacturer of solar power products with its proprietary, low-cost String Ribbon(TM) wafer technology, today announced that it has entered into a four-year supply contract with Mainstream Energy, LLC, which has systems integration and distribution subsidaries involved in the sales, distribution and installation of residential and commercial solar electric systems nationwide. Under the terms of the agreement, Evergreen Solar will ship approximately $100 million of photovoltaic modules to Mainstream Energy over the next four years.

“We continue to align ourselves with recognized leaders in the solar industry,” said Terry Bailey, Evergreen Solar’s Senior VP Marketing and Sales. “Mainstream Energy will play a significant role in our effort to further penetrate the U.S. marketplace. The size of the deal also reflects our confidence in achieving our current expansion plans and is further affirmation of the prospects for our String Ribbon technology.”

“Evergreen Solar represents an important strategic partner for us,” stated David Katz, President of AEE Solar, a Mainstream Energy subsidiary. “We value their commitment to innovation and long-term vision for the industry. We view them as a solar technology pioneer that is making considerable strides in improving cell efficiencies and more importantly, lowering the overall costs of solar power.”

The Mainstream sales agreement is Evergreen Solar’s sixth major contract in the past 12 months. The value of these six contracts totals more than $700 million over the next five years. The photovoltaic modules will be manufactured at Evergreen Solar’s plant in Massachusetts and at EverQ’s German factory, which is currently being expanded. EverQ is a strategic partnership between Evergreen Solar, Q-Cells AG of Germany and Renewable Energy Corporation ASA (REC) of Norway.

Nanosolar startup aims for largest solar-cell manufacturing facility in California

Mark LaPedus, EE Times  June 21, 2006
Source: http://www.eet.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189600110

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A startup originally funded by Google Inc. Wednesday (June 21) announced a $100 million financing package and set plans to build what the company claims as the world’s largest solar-cell manufacturing facility in California.

Presently in pilot production in its Palo Alto, Calif.-based facility, the solar-cell startup — Nanosolar — has started ordering volume production equipment for use in a factory said to have a total annual cell output of 430-megawatts (MW) once fully built out, or approximately 200 million cells per year.

The company’s first volume factory will be located in the San Francisco Bay area. Nanosolar (Palo Alto, Calif.) also said that its first panel fab, designed for a broad array of novel product form factors using advanced processes, is expected to be located in Berlin, Germany.

California is positioning itself as one of the largest users of solar energy in the United States. Recently, the California Public Utilities Commission proposed the California Solar Initiative (CSI), the largest solar energy bill in U.S. history. It will establish an 11-year solar rebate program for new and retrofit installations of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, worth $3.2 billion.

Meanwhile, originally funded by the founders of search-engine giant Google (Mountain View, Calif.), the five-year-old startup claims to have developed a proprietary nanoparticle ink and fast roll-printing technology.

It makes several products based on thin-film technology. Nanosolar’s A-100 cell technology will be available to the general public in 2007. SolarPly is the company’s flagship building-integrated product, which consists of a large-area, solar-electric “carpet” for integration with commercial roofing membranes.

Nanosolar has garnered more than $10 million in government contracts and $48 million in venture capital to develop a cheap roll-to-roll solar cell manufacturing process on which it is collaborating with Lawrence Berkeley and Sandia National Laboratories. Its copper indium gallium diselenide cells use a low-cost substrate that can be processed without the need for vacuum deposition, creating what Nanosolar claims is the world’s most cost-efficient solar cell.

“Nanosolar’s technology enables low-cost, high-yield production previously unattainable,” said Chris Eberspacher, Nanosolar’s head of technology, in a statement. “This allows us to produce cells very inexpensively and assemble them into panels that are comparable in efficiency to that of high-volume silicon based PV panels.”

To help propel its fab, Nanosolar announced that it has completed a $100 million funding package. As part of the funding, it also announced a Series C Preferred Stock financing in the amount of more than $75 million.

“This will allow us to further expand our leadership position in solar power innovation,” said Martin Roscheisen, CEO of Nanosolar, in a statement. “We are looking forward to working with our new investors and partners, who have very successful track records in clean energy, to lead the industry on a path of rapidly more cost-efficient solar electricity.”

In addition to participation by the company’s existing investors, including venture firms MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Onpoint and Mitsui, new investors include SAC Capital, GLG Partners, Swiss Re, Grazia Equity, Capricorn Management and Beck.

Also participating was the investment arm of Jeff Skoll, the investment arms of SAP founders Klaus Tschira and Dietmar Hopp and Christian Reitberger, the original backer of Q-Cells, the world’s largest independent silicon cell PV manufacturer.

Not long ago, solar energy was considered a niche market. Now, solar-cell vendors are scrambling to expand their capacities to meet huge demand from homes and businesses worldwide. Companies that have recently announced new and massive solar-cell production plants include Energy Conversion Devices, Evergreen Solar, Sharp, SunPower and Suntech.

Solar is here today, but at about three times the cost of conventionally generated electricity However, thanks to advances in thin-flim technologies, some believe that the cost of solar will be on par with that of conventional electricity within 10 years.

German Solar-cell maker EverQ GmbH opens solar-cell plant in Thalheim, Germany

Mark LaPedus, EE Times / June 21, 2006
Source:  http://www.eetimes.eu/power/189600197

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Solar-cell maker EverQ GmbH Tuesday (June 20) marked the official opening of its first and previously-announced production facility in Thalheim, Germany.

EverQ (Thalheim) is a partnership of Evergreen Solar Inc., Q-Cells AG and Renewable Energy Corp. ASA.

Evergreen Solar develops, manufactures and markets solar cells. Q-Cells claims to be the world’s largest independent manufacturer of crystalline silicon solar cells. Renewable Energy is the world’s largest manufacturer of solar-grade silicon and multicrystalline wafers.

To date, 260 workers are employed at the 16,400-square-meter production facility at EverQ. The number of employees is expected to increase to more than 300 when the full production capacity of 30-megawatts is achieved.

EverQ uses Evergreen Solar’s thin-film solar technology, dubbed String Ribbon. The technology claims to require nearly 50 percent less silicon than conventional crystalline technologies. EverQ exclusively manufactures Evergreen’s Spruce Line of photovoltaic (PV) panels.

EverQ is already planning a major expansion in Thalheim as part of a recently-announced effort. Groundbreaking for a second wafer, cell and module manufacturing plant — with a capacity of 50-MW — is expected later this year.

With REC committing to supply a total of 7,400 metric tons of silicon over seven years beginning in 2008, EverQ plans to increase its current production capacity from 30-MW to approximately 300-MW by 2010 or sooner.

LONDON — Q-Cells AG, a maker of crystalline silicon solar cells, has signed a five-year supply deal with PowerLight Corp. valued at $150 million.

Source: EETimes
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193301556

Q-Cells (Thalheim, Germany) has agreed to provide PowerLight (Berkeley, Calif.) with $150 million worth of solar cells and granted PowerLight an option to increase that volume by an additional $60 million.

The move helps Q-Cells expand its presence in the U.S. market.

Founded in 1999, Q-Cells employs 900 people and expects to produce polycrystalline and monocrystalline silicon cells with a total output of 255 MWp in 2006 and is in the process of increasing production capacity.

“This deal will showcase the tremendous results that will come from combining PowerLights proven approach to design, development and deployment of solar power systems with Q-Cells’ high-performance photovoltaic technology,” said Anton Milner, chief executive officer and founder of Q-Cells, in a statement issued by PowerLight.
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Earlier (July 2006) news report

Q-Cells invests $9 million in Flexcell, a swiss flexible startup company

EE Times Europe 3 July 2006

http://www.eetimes.eu/germany/190200061

LONDON — Solar energy products supplier Q-Cells AG, which is claimed to be the second biggest manufacturer of mono- and polycrystalline silicon solar cells in the world, has agreed to invest €7 million (about $9.0 million) in Swiss company VHF Technologies SA, which trades as Flexcell.

Flexcell (Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland) said it wants to use the money to industrialize a new photovoltaic technology. Q-Cells AG (Thalheim, Germany), with an annual production capacity of 280-Megawatts, has invested in Flexcell as an opportunity in the field of flexible thin-film technologies.

Q-Cells’ investment in Flexcell is earmarked to build an industrial production line in Yverdon with an annual production capacity of 2-megawatts. The increase in the production capacity will enable the company to respond to requests for photovoltaic building components.

Kyocera Achieves New World Record in Solar Cell Efficiency

Oct 16,2006

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Kyocera announced today that it has achieved a new world record of 18.5% energy conversion efficiency for a 15cm x 15cm multicrystalline silicon solar cell.

The achievement represents the latest in a series of advances by Kyocera, which in 1985 became the first manufacturer to commercialize multicrystalline silicon solar cell technology. Prior records for energy conversion efficiency in multicrystalline cells of this size were also set by Kyocera, including 14.5% in 1989, 17.1% in 1996, and 17.7% in 2004.

Kyocera’s other recent efficiency benchmarks were achieved both by optimizing the cell’s grid-line configuration and by texturing the cell’s surface using the company’s proprietary “d.Blue” process, which maximizes sunlight collection by reducing reflectivity. The latest improvement is the result of increasing the amount of light intercepted by the cell by moving the front contacts to the back of the cell.

“The new world record in energy conversion efficiency that Kyocera announces today demonstrates our commitment to continuous improvement,” said Steve Hill, President of Kyocera Solar, Inc. “We are pleased that our team has achieved this milestone and we look forward to putting this technological achievement into mass production.”

Kyocera unveiled the new cell during the Renewable Energy 2006 International Exhibition held in Makuhari, Japan, from October 10 to October 13, 2006. “It was a huge hit at our booth,” said Tom Dyer, Vice President of Marketing and Government Affairs for Kyocera Solar, Inc.

Solar energy Powering up : Improved devices may make better use of sunlight

Sep 14th 2006

From The Economist print edition
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7905292

MOST of the power generated by mankind originates from the sun. It was sunlight that nurtured the early life that became today’s oil, gas and coal. It is the solar heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans that fuels wave power, wind farms and hydroelectric schemes. But using the sun’s energy directly to generate power is rare. Solar cells account for less than 1% of the world’s electricity production.

Recent technological improvements, however, may boost this figure. The root of the problem is that most commercial solar cells are made from silicon, and silicon is expensive. Cells can be made from other, cheaper materials, but these are not as efficient as those made from silicon.

The disparity is stark. Commercial silicon cells have efficiencies of 15% to 20%. In the laboratory, some have been made with an efficiency of 30%. The figure for non-traditional cells is far lower. A typical cell based on electrically conductive plastic has an efficiency of just 3% or 4%. What is needed is a way to boost the efficiency of cells made from cheap materials, and three new ways of doing so were unveiled this week in San Francisco, at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Solar cells work by the action of light on electrons. An electron held in a chemical bond in the cell absorbs a photon (a particle of light) and, thus energised, breaks free. Such electrons can move about and, if they all move in the same direction, create an electric current. But they will not all travel in the same direction without a little persuasion. With silicon, this is achieved using a secondary electrical field across the cell. Non-silicon cells usually have a built-in “electrochemical potential” that encourages the electrons to move away from areas where they are concentrated and towards places where they have more breathing space.

Kwanghee Lee of Pusan National University, in South Korea, and Alan Heeger of the University of California, Santa Barbara, work on solar cells made of electrically conductive plastics. (Indeed, Dr Heeger won a Nobel prize for discovering that some plastics can be made to conduct electricity.) They found that by adding titanium oxide to such a cell and then baking it in an oven, they could increase the efficiency with which it converted solar energy into electricity.

The trick is to put the titanium oxide in as a layer between the part of the cell where the electrons are liberated and the part where they are collected for dispatch into the wider world. This makes the electrically conductive plastic more sensitive to light at wavelengths where sunlight is more intense. Pop the resulting sandwich in the oven for a few minutes at 150°C and the plastic layer becomes crystalline. This improves the efficiency of the process, because the electrons find it easier to move through crystalline structures.

The technique used by Dr Lee and Dr Heeger boosts the efficiency of plastic cells to 5.6%. That is still poor compared with silicon, but it is a big improvement on what was previously possible. Dr Lee concedes that there is still a long way to go, but says that even an efficiency of 7% would bring plastic cells into competition with their silicon cousins, given how cheap they are to manufacture.

A second approach, taken by Michael Grätzel of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, is to copy nature. Plants absorb solar energy during photosynthesis. They use it to split water into hydrogen ions, electrons and oxygen. The electrons released by this reaction are taken up by carrier molecules and then passed along a chain of such molecules before being used to power the chemical reactions that ultimately make sugar.

Dye-sensitised solar cells seek to mimic this assembly line. The dye acts like chlorophyll, the pigment that makes plants green and that is responsible for absorbing sunlight and liberating electrons. The electrons are passed via a semiconductor to an electrode, through which they leave the cell. By using a dye called phthalocyanine, which absorbs not only visible light but also infra-red wavelengths, Dr Grätzel has been able to raise the efficiency of the process to 11%. That, he says, should be enough to make dye-sensitised cells competitive with silicon.

The third technique, being developed by Prashant Kamat of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, and his colleagues, uses that fashionable scientific tool, the carbon nanotube. This is a cylinder composed solely of carbon atoms, and one of its properties is good electrical conductivity. In effect, nanotubes act as wires a few billionths of a metre in diameter.

Dr Kamat and his team covered the surface of an experimental cell made of cadmium sulphide, zinc oxide and titanium dioxide with nanotubes, so that the tubes stuck up from the surface like hairs. The tubes then eased the passage of the liberated electrons from the cell to the electrode that collected them. Using this technique doubled the efficiency of Dr Kamat’s cell from 5% to 10% at ultraviolet wavelengths and he reckons it would create similar increases in efficiency in both plastic and dye-based cells.

Such a boost would take novel solar cells closer to becoming a commercial reality. And that would be a very good thing. Production of solar cells has increased by 32% a year, on average, for the past decade and jumped by 45% in 2005. That sounds impressive, but it has been achieved largely by subsidies from the governments of Germany, Japan and California. Only in places unconnected to an electricity grid, such as much of rural Africa and rural Asia, are solar cells truly commercially viable. But if the price were to come down because efficient cells could be made from cheap materials, that could change quickly. The rest of the world would then be able to join the poor of Africa and the rich of California, and generate solar power for itself.

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