Solar Cells Info

Motonobu Kawai, Nikkei Electronics /Nov 06, 2007
Source: TechOn
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20071106/141906/

Bridgestone Corp has decided to increase its production of EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate) film, which is used as adhesive sealing film for solar cells.  Investing about ¥3 billion (US$26 million) in its Iwata Plant in Iwata, Shizuoka, the company will boost output to about 1.7 times larger 1,500t per month. The enhanced production is slated to begin in January 2010.
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Company predicts solar industry consolidation will step up from 2010
James Murray, BusinessGreen, 05 Nov 2007
Source: BusinessGreen.com
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2202772/

German-based solar panel manufacturer Q-Cells last week announced it is to acquire its US partner Solar Fields LLC in a deal worth $5m plus stock.  Under the agreement, Solar Fields is to merge with Q-Cells’ US subsidiary Calyxo in return for $5m in cash and a seven per cent stake in Calyxo. Q-Cells’ Stefan Dietrich said the aim of the deal was to accelerate the development and production of Solar Fields’ cadmium telluride photovoltaic modules, which were previously exclusively licensed to Calyxo.
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by Kushal Shah
Source: ExpressComputerOnline.com
http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20071112/technology05.shtml

Solar cells made of nanometer-scale wire could well end up providing trickles of useful power to nanoelectronic devices or microscopic robots in the near future. Researchers at Harvard are trying to make this concept a commercial reality.
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Source: EarthTimes.org /Popular Science, press release
New York, 12 Nov 2007
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,221537.shtml

For the second consecutive year, Popular Science is honoring one top product out of its 100 Best of What’s New award winners as “Innovation of the Year.” This honor goes to the remarkably designed PowerSheet flexible solar cells. Imagine a solar panel without the panel. Nanosolar has created an ink that takes sunlight and converts it into electricity. The ink is coated onto metal sheets as thin as aluminum foil with a printing-press-like device. The sheets are lighter, inexpensive and as efficient as traditional solar panels. The editors of PopSci believe that eventually every commercial rooftop could be carpeted with PowerSheet solar cells.
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Cell deliveries for a period of 10 years; Joint focus on the US market with California-based Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ:QTWW)
Erfurt, 2 November 2007
Source: Asola Power.com press release
http://www.asola-power.com/output/en/news.htm

From 2008, ersol Solar Energy AG (ersol) will deliver silicon solar cells to the module producer asola, based in Erfurt, Germany. To this end, both companies have today signed a long-term supply agreement that will run until 2017. The total volume of the contract amounts to around € 230 million. ersol is scheduled to receive down payments from asola, which will later be credited to the German module producer, when purchasing solar cells, in the form of a purchase price reduction.
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by Ashish Kumar Mishra, TNN, 10 Nov, 2007
Source: Economic Times
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/The_Big_Story/
Potential_for_solar_energy_large_in_India/articleshow/2531030.cms

In India, the prospect of solar energy is sunny but without being too hot. Today, the country generates almost 1,748 MW power through solar energy. That’s a pittance when compared to India’s total demand of almost 1.3 lakh MW every year. However, companies with investments in the technology believe that the potential for solar energy is much larger than the above share.  “In the next five years, I see solar technology supplying a major part of the world’s energy requirement,” says Ratul Puri, Executive Director, Moser Baer. Mr Puri wouldn’t believe otherwise. In the last couple of years, he has invested almost Rs 161 crore in the manufacturing of photovoltaic solar cells and panels.
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Posted by Martin LaMonica /November 9, 2007
Source: CNet.com news
http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9814084-54.html

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory gave out awards on Thursday to two companies developing solar electric cells they hope will bring a breakthrough in solar panel efficiency.  Top prize went to Wakonda Technologies, based in upstate New York, which is commercializing “virtual single crystal” technology.
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Source: Semicondcutor-Today.com / 3 November 2007
http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/NEWS_2007/NOV_07/GREENVOLTS_131107.htm

GreenVolts Inc of San Francisco, CA, USA, which has developed concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) cell technology, announced that it has secured $10m in a Series A funding round led by Greenlight Energy Resources Inc, an operator of renewable energy projects and an investor in early-stage renewable energy companies, and involving Pacific Northwest energy production, transmission and distribution company Avista Corp as well as several other investors. The funding was announced at the end of October at the annual California Cleantech Open (CCTO awards) ceremony in San Francisco, where GreenVolts received the 2007 CCTO Alumni award for progress in customer acquisition and funding (after being the winner in the renewable energy category last year).
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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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Changzho China, Nov. 13, 2007
Source: Trina Solar press release
http://www.trinasolar.com/front/en/news.php?newid=47

Trina Solar Limited (“Trina Solar” or the “Company”), a leading integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic products from the production of ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of PV modules, founded in 1997, announced today that the Company has signed a six-year polysilicon supply agreement with Sichuan Yongxiang Polysilicon Co., Ltd. (“Sichuan Yongxiang Polysilicon”).  Sichuan Yongxiang Polysilicon, a Leshan-based company in China’s Sichuan Province, is in the advanced stages of building a 10,000 metric ton polysilicon production facility with an initial phase of 1,000 metric tons launching next year. Under this six-year agreement, Sichuan Yongxiang Polysilicon will supply Trina Solar with virgin polysilicon sufficient to produce approximately 1,300MW of modules. Deliveries under this agreement will begin in mid-2008 and continue through 2013.
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