Solar Cells Info

By Craig D. Rose /UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 10, 2006
Source:  Union Tribune
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20061210-9999-1n10solarone.html

When the sun rises on New Year’s Day, it will signal the start of California’s most ambitious effort yet to generate electricity from sunlight. California hopes to subsidize the installation of enough photovoltaic systems, like this one atop a Qualcomm building in Sorrento Mesa, to generate 3,000 megawatts of solar electricity. That could power nearly 3 million homes on a sunny day.

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Nanotechnology meets solar energy
By Ed Taylor, Tribune
December 10, 2006
Source: East Valley Tribune of Arizona
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=80408

Two of the hot-button fields of scientific study — nanotechnology and solar energy — are being combined by a team of Arizona State University researchers in an effort to find a cheap source of household energy for the nation’s future. The team headed by Stuart Lindsey, director of the Center for Single Molecule Biophysics at the Arizona Biodesign Institute; Rudy Diaz, associate professor of electrical engineering; and chemistry professor Devens Gust, have received a $1.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to explore creation of infinitesimal nanoscale devices on the molecular level that can convert sunlight into electric current.

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By THOMAS FRIEDMAN
Columnist, New York Times
©2006 New York Times News Service
source:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/opinion/16189568.htm

So here’s a little news quiz: Guess who’s the seventh-richest man in China today, with a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at $1.43 billion?

Answer: Shi Zhengrong. Now guess what he does. Real estate? No. Banking? No. Manufacturing for Wal-Mart? No. Construction? No.

Shi is China’s leading maker of silicon photovoltaic solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity. Yes, the seventh-richest man in China is a green entrepreneur! It should only happen in America. Only 43 years old and full of energy himself, Shi hopes to do for solar energy what China did for tennis shoes: drive down the cost so that millions of people who could not afford solar photovoltaic panels will be able to do so.

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Report by Mohammad Ezz Al Deen, Staff Reporter
source: Gulf News
http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Technology/10087866.html

Dubai: Investments in Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO) exceed Dh5.8 billion, a senior DSO official said yesterday. “The Dh5.8 billion investments include infrastructure, landscaping, villas, staff accommodation, sewage treatment plant as well as the DSO headquarters, besides the approved developers’ investment in tens of towers,” Shahla Ahmad Abdul Razak, DSO Deputy CEO, told Gulf News yesterday.

DSO, the emirate’s own version of Silicon Valley, may increase or even double its investment in a few years as it receives new applications to set up businesses in the DSO zone. DSO announced yesterday that Europe’s Optical Disc Group and Solar Technologies Group will invest Dh112 million in the technology free zone. The facility, expected to open late next year, will be the Middle East’s first facility of its kind, and will generate skilled jobs for over 200 people.

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05 December 2006

Source: RSC Chemistry World
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2006/December/05120601.asp

Hydrogen is often touted as an environmentally-friendly fuel – but the gas is only as clean as the method used to make it. Now, however, scientists have invented a solar-powered method for splitting water which they claim is the most efficient to date. Michael Grätzel and colleagues from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne, Switzerland, hope that their method could one day provide a cheap and efficient technology to produce abundant hydrogen using the Sun’s rays.

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December 7, 2006, Dresden, Germany
source: Laser Focus World
http://lfw.pennnet.com/display_article/279197/

Novaled, a company dedicated to organic light emitting devices (OLEDs) and Heliatek (Dresden, Germany), a company dedicated to organic based photovoltaics, have entered into a licensing agreement concerning the use of Novaled PIN OLED technology for solar cell application. With this agreement, Heliatek will develop high performing organic solar cells using the power efficiency given by the Novaled PIN OLED technologies and molecular dopants. Both ompanies, in addition, will cooperate on further developing organic based photovoltaic technologies.
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Washington, Dec 08:
source: Zeenews
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=340728&ssid=365&sid=ENV

An Australian National University researcher claims to have invented a technology that could cut the cost of producing solar panels by more than 60 percent. Professor Andrew Blakers, director of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems at the Australian National University, has said that `sliver technology` could reduce the price of solar power to below the current retail price of electricity. This would also make it cost-effective for householders to buy solar panels rather than electricity from the grid, he said.
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By Renwick McLean
International Herald Tribune, November 28, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/28/news/solar.php

MADRID: More than 500 years after Christopher Columbus first sailed to the Americas, a Swiss catamaran is scheduled to depart from southern Spain on Wednesday in an attempt to make the first trans-Atlantic crossing in a boat powered entirely by solar energy.  The journey, conceived by Marc Wüst, a manager at a Swiss manufacturer of solar-powered boats called MW-Line, is intended to promote the commercial potential of solar energy in water travel.

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New Solar Cell Breaks the “40 Percent Efficient” Sunlight-to-Electricity Barrier
source:
http://newsblaze.com/story/20061205093826tsop.nb/newsblaze/TOPSTORY/Top-Stories.html

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Alexander Karsner today announced that with DOE funding, a concentrator solar cell produced by Boeing-Spectrolab has recently achieved a world-record conversion efficiency of 40.7 percent, establishing a new milestone in sunlight-to-electricity performance. This breakthrough may lead to systems with an installation cost of only $3 per watt, producing electricity at a cost of 8-10 cents per kilowatt/hour, making solar electricity a more cost-competitive and integral part of our nation’s energy mix.

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Free Solar Roof Is Provided by SunEdison, North America’s Largest Solar Services Provider

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.- December 05, 2006–(BUSINESS WIRE)
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061205005945&newsLang=en

California Polytechnic State University’s (Cal Poly) Engineering West will dedicate its new solar photovoltaic energy system on December 7 at 11 a.m. The Cal Poly solar panel system, part of an extended California State pilot program, was installed in September 2006 at no cost to the university. The system, which is expected to generate 263,000 kilowatt hours per year, was built and is owned, operated and maintained by SunEdison, North America’s largest solar energy services provider. The system will reduce a portion of Cal Poly’s energy costs by delivering predictable electrical energy pricing for the university for the next 20 years. The system will eliminate 110,000 pounds of greenhouse gases per year. Excess power generated by the system is fed directly to the campus grid.

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