Solar Cells Info

Connecticut Clean Energy Fund Grant Approved to Support 171-kw Solar PV Installation

source: Connecticut Innovations /press release
http://www.ctinnovations.com/news/290.php

The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF) today announced that the Clean Energy Investment Committee has approved a grant of $777,000 to the R.C. Bigelow Company, also known as the Bigelow Tea Company, to defray approximately 55% of the cost of installing a 171-kilowatt solar photovoltaic (PV) system at the company’s Fairfield, Connecticut headquarters facility. The solar PV system will be mounted on the rooftops of four different building levels and will supply approximately 195,600 kilowatt hours annually, or 6.7% of the total electrical needs of the headquarters complex.
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By Robert Rodriguez / The Fresno Bee /March 24, 2007
source: Fresno Bee.com
http://www.fresnobee.com/170/story/37208.html

One of the largest solar panel projects of its kind on a U.S. college campus is being built at California State University, Fresno.  The $11.9 million project will use about 4,000 photovoltaic panels on top of 10 metal structures to produce 1 megawatt of electricity. That’s about 20% of the university’s base electricity demand and equivalent to power for 1,000 homes.
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By Matthew Ralph / March 22, 2007
Source:  New Jersey.com
http://www.nj.com/news/gloucester/local/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1174541147174380.xml

HARRISON TWP. An effort to make the township’s wastewater management plant among the first in the region to be partially powered by solar panels is moving forward with the blessing of township officials.  The township committee gave approval earlier this week to explore the option for the Woodland Avenue plant, which services the Mullica Hill section of the township with a capacity of about 800,000 gallons per day.
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BELLE MEADE, Tenn. (AP)
Source: CBS News  March 20, 2007
http://www.cbs46.com/global/story.asp?s=6254026
Zoning rules in Al Gore’s upscale Tennessee neighborhood have prevented the former vice president and environmental activist from installing solar panels on his roof.

Gore bought his multimillion dollar home in 2002 in Belle Meade, an exclusive city encircled by metropolitan Nashville, and he has embarked on an ambitious renovation. But his contractors ran into a legal barrier last summer when they sought to apply for a permit to install solar panels on the roof.
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SANTA CLARA, Calif./March 14, 2007
Source: Applied Materials /press release
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/appliedmaterials/index.jsp?epi-content=GENERIC&newsId=20070314005323&ndmHsc=v2*A1167656400000*B1173907584000*C4102491599000*DgroupByDate*J2*N1002992&newsLang=en&beanID=547561197&viewID=news_view

Applied Materials, Inc., the global leader in nanomanufacturing technology™ solutions for the electronics industry, announced today that it will install over 1.9 megawatts of solar power generation capability at its research campus in Sunnyvale, California. This is believed to be the largest solar power installation on an existing corporate facility in the United States and will be rolled out in three phases.
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Times News Network / March 6,2007
Source: IndiaTimes
http://infotech.indiatimes.com/Moser_Baer_to_set_up_thin_film_solar_fab/articleshow/1727200.cms

NEW DELHI: Within weeks of government unveiling a policy to encourage semiconductor fabrication and other micro and nano technology manufacturing, Moser Baer on Monday announced it would establish the world’s largest Thin Film Solar Fab at Greater Noida, entailing an investment of $250 million over the next three years.
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by Ann Steffora Mutschler, Electronic News /6 March 2007
Source: Electronicsweekly.com
http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2007/03/06/40907/Applied+to+build+advanced+thin+film+solar+line.htm

Semiconductor and thin film equipment leader Applied Materials said it has been selected by Moser Baer India to develop and install what it believes is the world’s first Generation (Gen) 8.5 thin film solar module production line in New Delhi, India.

This Gen 8.5 line will manufacture photovoltaic solar modules using ultra-large 5.7-square meter substrates, measuring 2.2 meters by 2.6 meters. These glass panels – four times bigger than today’s largest solar panel substrates – are expected to drive down panel production costs and help reduce the overall cost of solar electricity, Applied noted.

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Applied Materials to Deliver Europe’s First Production Line for Manufacturing Ultra-Large, Cost-Efficient Solar Panels

SANTA CLARA, Calif. / March 20, 2007
source: Applied Materials/ press release
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/appliedmaterials/index.jsp?epi-content=GENERIC&newsId=20070320005495&ndmHsc=v2*A1167656400000*B1174422807000*C4102491599000*DgroupByDate*J2*N1002992&newsLang=en&beanID=547561197&viewID=news_view

Applied Materials, Inc. has been awarded a milestone contract to provide T-Solar Global S.A. of Spain with Europe’s first thin film solar module production line using ultra-large 5.7m2 (2.2m x 2.6m) glass panels. By scaling to these large-area substrates, the same size used in Generation (Gen) 8.5 flat panel displays, this integrated line can drive down the cost of solar panel manufacturing while doubling rated factory output. For installations such as large commercial rooftops and solar farms — applications that are already growing rapidly as a result of the increased availability of lower-cost thin film solar panels — these ultra-large substrates are expected to enable an additional 25% reduction in the cost of solar electricity.
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Price rise restricts solar power in Sunderban,  report by Maureen Nandini Mitra
Source. Central Chronicle /March  22, 2007
http://www.centralchronicle.com/20070322/2203303.htm

A few years ago, Shaktipada Jena, a small farmer could dream of buying a home solar power system. He’d have to stretch his means to save between Rs 3,100 and Rs 4,800, the going rate. But now prices have gone through the roof and a solar unit is out of his reach. Everyday, as darkness falls, he sees electric lights come on in some of his neighbours’ homes on Ghoramara island, in the Sunderbans archipelago. Meanwhile, his children do their homework by the flickering glow of kerosene lamps and his wife speaks wistfully of tv soaps that she can’t watch.
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Could this landmark plant herald a U.S. boom for utility-scale solar power?
By Gilbert E. Cohen
http://www.solartoday.org/2007/mar_apr07/nevada_solar_one.htm

The 64-megawatt Nevada Solar One concentrating solar power plant, among the largest of its kind to date, is slated for completion in April 2007.   Boulder City, just outside of Las Vegas, has been known as a city of promise since the Depression Era, when workers flocked there to build the legendary Hoover Dam. Today this oasis in the desert is the site of the nation’s newest large-scale renewable energy project, Nevada Solar One.

The 64-megawatt (MW) solar thermal power plant, among the largest of its kind to date, broke ground just one year ago, in March 2006. Nevada Solar One’s groundbreaking came three years after the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada approved a power purchase agreement among utilities Nevada Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Power Co. and project leader Solargenix Energy, now a subsidiary of Spain’s Acciona Group. The utilities will use credits from the solar power plant to meet their obligations under Nevada’s renewable portfolio standard.
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