Solar Cells Info

Barcelona site to use solar energy for electricity generation, solar hot water for industrial processes
By Brad Kenney, June 15, 2007
Source: Industry Week
http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=14418&SectionID=2

Japanese automobile manufacturer Nissan Motor Co. will install 606 solar panels at its Barcelona vehicle plant by the end of this summer. The new initiative complements other programs either already in place at or planned for other Nissan facilities, including six wind turbines at its UK-based Sunderland plant and 732 panels slated for installation this summer at its light commercial vehicle plant in Avila, Spain.
(more…)

12 June 2007
Source: Semiconductor Today.com
http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/NEWS_2007/JUNE_07/JOHAN_120607.htm

Johanna Solar Technology GmbH (JST) of Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany has granted the right to distribute up to 80% of its CIGSSe (copper indium gallium sulfur selenide) thin-film solar modules for at least five years to aleo solar AG of Oldenburg in Lower Saxony, Germany (under the name ‘aleo’). Both firms will cooperate in the product launch: aleo will be responsible for product branding, while Johanna Solar Technology will be responsible for technology branding (products will bear the label “made by Johanna”).
(more…)

Rochester Hills, Mich., June 7, 2007
Source: United Solar Ovonic /press release
http://www.uni-solar.com/FeaturedNews/UnitedSolarOvonic_SolarCraft_060607.pdf

Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD) (NASDAQ: ENER) announced the installation of its UNI-SOLAR® ground-mounted amorphous thin-film photovoltaic (PV) panels to power the 1.1 Megawatt solar energy system at Paramount Farms, Inc., the world’s largest vertically integrated
supplier of pistachios and almonds. The installation, which spans 8 acres, is one of the largest single-site, privately-owned solar energy systems in the U.S. SolarCraft, one of the most experienced solar energy contractors, completed the installation.
(more…)

Developer of CIGS/Se thin film solar technology has been nominated for the World Clean Energy Award

Oldenburg and Brandenburg/Havel, Germany, 11 June 2007.
Source: Aleo Solar /press release
http://www.aleo-solar.de/index.php/page_id/49/language/en

Aleo solar has been granted the right to distribute up to 80 percent of Johanna Solar Technology’s CIGSSe thin film solar modules under the aleo brand name for at least five years. (more…)

Gasabo, Rwanda, 08 Jun 2007, Energy News Editor
Source: EarthTimes.org
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/70841.html

Rwandan President Paul Kagame has inaugurated Africa’s biggest solar energy plant.  The facility, which is installed at Jali hill in Gasabo District, was funded by the German state through a company called Stadtwerke Mainz and Rhineland-Palatinate citizens, the New Times in Kigali reported.  At the launch of the facility, Kagame said there would not have been a better way to mark 25 years of cooperation between Rwanda and Germany.
(more…)

By Lester Haines, 8th June 2007
Source: Register.co.uk
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/08/rwandan_solar_plant/

Rwanda yesterday unveiled a 250-kilowatt solar plant which ups the nation’s ‘leccy-producing capacity to 50 megawatts, Reuters reports.  The German-backed project, said to be the largest in Africa, makes a modest contribution to the 100 megawatts the country needs “to meet soaring demand that has triggered regular blackouts”. Rwanda’s hydroelectric plants have struggled to cope, and many businesses get their juice from diesel generators.
(more…)

By Dave Segal, Star Bulletin, 14 June 2007
Source: Star Bulletin
http://starbulletin.com/2007/06/14/news/story02.html

Hoku Scientific Inc., scoring its largest deal yet since transforming itself into a supplier to solar-panel makers, said yesterday it has signed a contract with a China-based company that is worth up to $678 million.  The 10-year deal with Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd., the third-largest solar-cell maker in the world, gives subsidiary Hoku Materials more than $1 billion in contracts for polysilicon from the factory Hoku is building in Pocatello, Idaho. In January, Hoku signed a $370 million, seven-year supply contract with Osaka, Japan-based Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd.
(more…)

June 13, 2007. Tokyo, Japan
Source: Compoundsemiconductor.com
http://www.compoundsemi.com/documents/articles/cldoc/8467.htm

Honda Soltec Co., Ltd., Honda’s wholly-owned solar cell subsidiary, has begun sales of thin film solar cells produced by Honda Engineering Co., Ltd., primarily in the Kanto area, Japan, through distributors which also provide solar cell installation service.
(more…)

June 14, 2007
Source: Technology News Daily
http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/7153

Honda Soltec Co., Ltd. has begun sales of thin film solar cells produced by Honda Engineering Co., Ltd., primarily in the Kanto area, Japan, through distributors which also provide solar cell installation service.  The thin film solar cell developed independently by Honda uses thin film made from a compound of copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS), which makes the solar cell more environmentally-responsible by focusing on the reduction of CO2 generated even during the production stage.
(more…)

Mitsubishi Electric develops practical use Multi-crystalline Silicon Solar Cell with world’s highest conversion efficiency of 18%

Tokyo, May 31, 2007
Source: Mitsubishi Electric /press release
http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/bu/solar/products/pdf/PVe_0531.pdf

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (President and CEO: Setsuhiro Shimomura)
announced today its achievement of a world record (As of May 31, 2007) photoelectric conversion efficiency rate of 18.0% in a 150mm square practical use multi-crystalline silicon solar cell (Results from evaluation by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science And Technology (AIST), a public verification agency), an improvement of 1.2% over our previous models. We plan to present our technology at the Fukuoka 17th International
Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference in December 2007.
(more…)