Solar Cells Info

Solaicx is the second solar company to locate in the state this year
Portland, Ore. June 12, 2007
Source: Solaicx News reports/Oregon Economic Development Association
http://www.solaicx.com/pages/news.htm

Solaicx, a leading manufacturer of mono-crystalline silicon ingots and wafers used in the solar energy industry, announced today that it will be locating its first high-volume manufacturing facility in Portland. For the past five years the company has developed manufacturing technologies that produce low-cost, high-efficiency silicon wafers for the photovoltaic (PV) industry that have been produced at the company’s pilot manufacturing facility in Santa Clara, Calif.
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By Tom Lawrence, Black Hills Pioneer
Deadwood, SD, June 11, 2007
Source: Black Hills Pioneer
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18458095

In the 1950s, President Dwight Eisenhower launched the interstate highway system and it still benefits America a half-century later.  “Some president sometime is going to build the national grid” to transport energy from one end of the nation to the other, predicted John O’Donnell, president of Ausra, Inc., a solar electric power park company. O’Donnell gave the initial keynote address during the opening day of the Western Governors’ Association annual meeting in Deadwood Sunday.
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The new class of materials enabling the world’s best solar cell has a bright future.

By Peter Fairley, June 15, 2007
Source: MIT Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18910/

A solar cell more than twice as efficient as typical rooftop solar panels has been developed by Spectrolab, a Boeing subsidiary based in Sylmar, CA. It makes use of a highly customizable and virtually unexplored class of materials that could lead to further jumps in efficiency over the next decade, making solar power less expensive than grid electricity in much of the country.

The cell, which employs new “metamorphic” materials, is designed for photovoltaic systems that use lenses and mirrors to concentrate the sun’s rays onto small, high-efficiency solar cells, thereby requiring far less semiconductor material than conventional solar panels.

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Business Wire, 11 June 1007

Source: Austin News
http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=185866&SecID=2

A warehouse renovation project set for the historic Pearl Brewery site will also be a “learning laboratory” for “green” building and energy efficiency, featuring the largest solar energy installation in the state, announced CPS Energy and Silver Ventures, which is renovating the historic brewery in an adaptive re-use project.
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Los Gatos, Calif., June 11, 2007
Source: Akeena Solar, press release
http://www.akeena.net/cm/Investor%20Relations/Home.html

Fast-growing Akeena Solar (OTCBB:AKNS) is generating the equivalent of power for 200 households with its just-completed project at the Air National Guard Armory in Fresno, CA.  Akeena, a publicly held company that already is one of the largest installers of residential solar and small commercial systems in the country, says that the $2.2 million contract is a meaningful contribution to Akeena’s revenues last quarter and this quarter.
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Business Standard Reporter / Mumbai June 7, 2007
http://www.business-standard.com/

A leader in the optical storage media space, Moser Baer India, today said that its wholly-owned subisidiary, Moser Baer Photo Voltaic (MBPV), has commenced commercial shipment of its solar photovoltaic (PV) cells.  MBPV further announced it has firm customer orders and MoUs exceeding $100 million (around Rs 410 crore).  Additionally, the state of the art fully integrated in-line cell manufacturing facility has started producing photovoltaic cells at expected level of output with cell efficiency levels up to 15.5%.
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Source: Xinhua/People’s Daily Online / 7 June 2007
http://english.people.com.cn/200706/07/eng20070607_381987.html

A Chinese company says it has developed a mobile phone that uses solar energy to recharge itself and can provide 40 minutes of talk-time after sitting in the sun for an hour.  Hi-Tech Wealth, a well-known telecommunication products supplier in China, claims its mobile phone is the world’s first to use solar power to recharge its battery. The company says a scale-like solar panel on the top side of the clamshell-designed phone can also be recharged by light from other sources including candles. (more…)

Palo Alta, CA & New Delhi, India, June 7, 2007
Source: Signet Solar.com / press release
http://www.signetsolar.com/in%20the%20news/index.htm

Signet Solar today announced plans to establish significant thin-film solar module manufacturing capabilities in India. Signet Solar’s India announcement follows plans unveiled lastmonth for a manufacturing and development plant in Dresden, Germany. Signet Solar is a global company founded to design, develop and manufacture large area, low cost, thin-film silicon solar photovoltaic (PV) modules. Signet Solar’s first production line in India will have a capacity of 60 megawatts (MW); expanding to 1 gigawatt (GW) in annual production over the next ten years.

Signet Solar’s India production facilities will tap into India’s manufacturing and engineering talent to establish high tech, high volume thin film solar module production. “The announcement by Signet Solar to expand its production capacity will significantly contribute to our plans to accelerate semiconductor and information technology (IT) hardware manufacturing in India,” states Thiru. A. Raja, India’s Honorable Union Minister of Information Technology. “Combined with our highly skilled
workforce, India has an opportunity to be a leader in using technology to address pressing global energy needs.”

Worldwide solar PV installations have grown at an annual rate of nearly 40 percent over the last five years, with demand expected to continue similar growth. In India, the Ministry of Renewable Energy has set a target to produce 10 percent of the country’s power requirements through renewable energy sources by 2012. “Signet Solar’s plans to establish manufacturing operations in India are very timely,” states Shri Vilas Muttemwar, India’s Honorable Minister of New and Renewable Energy.

“Our electric power demands will continue to increase as India’s economic growth accelerates. Cost effective alternative power generation technologies and power plants will be essential to help manage peak power demand and distributed power for rural electrification, while being sensitive to the environment.”  “We are convinced that India is ideal for manufacturing the world’s lowest cost solar modules,” said Dr. Prabhu Goel, Chairman and Founder, Signet Solar. “With its manufacturing prowess and vast need for energy, we consider India key to bringing Clean Affordable Renewable Energy, via thin film solar modules, to our customers.”

Applications for the company’s thin film solar modules include solar farms, large commercial installations, building-integrated photovoltaics, remote habitation, and irrigation. Thin film modules are expected to play a vital role in peak power production
and stand-alone applications by avoiding massive investments in power infrastructure. Signet Solar is poised to significantly expand existing markets for Clean Affordable Renewable Energy™ and create vast new opportunities in emerging economies.

Signet Solar customers will include PV system integrators and installers of solar farms for power generation. The large glass substrates and relatively lower cost of thin film modules are ideal for large scale PV system installations, building-integrated
photovoltaics and remote habitation.

About Signet Solar
Signet Solar, Inc. is a global company established in 2006 to bring Clean Affordable Renewable Energy™ to people and countries worldwide. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., the company has been founded to design, develop, manufacture and market thin film silicon photovoltaic modules. For more information, please visit www.signetsolar.com.

Source: Cellular News / 5 June 2007
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/24127.php

Telefonica’s new Madrid office complex has been in the news recent after it was noticed that the building will have Europe’s largest solar power plant on a building. The office complex will have over 16,000 solar panels that will run the length of the entire office complex on the building rooftops, and will be able to generate approximately 3 MW peak power, which translates into over 3.6 GWh per year.
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Source: BBC News / 5 June 2007
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6725109.stm

The Vatican is considering solar panels on other buildings,.  Pope Benedict XVI is to become the first pontiff to harness solar power to provide energy for the Vatican, engineers say.  The deteriorating cement roof tiles of the Paul VI auditorium will be replaced next year with photovoltaic cells to convert sunlight into electricity. The cells will generate enough power to light, heat or cool the hall, the Vatican engineers say.
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