Solar Cells Info

RoseStreet Labs & Sumitomo Chemical Announce Joint Venture for Full Spectrum Solar Cells

Thursday October 26

source: Yahoo Business News
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061026/lath081.html?.v=75

PHOENIX, Oct. 26 /PRNewswire/

RoseStreet Labs, LLC & Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd. (Sumitomo) today announced a joint venture, RSL Energy, Inc., for the development and manufacturing of full spectrum solar cells for the renewable energy markets. The joint venture will be headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.

RSL Energy is commercializing next-generation technology utilizing full spectrum solutions that can potentially achieve practical efficiencies above 48% in both single junction and multi-junction devices. RSL Energy has exclusive patent licenses from both Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Cornell University for unique semiconductor devices that use a significantly larger fraction of the solar spectrum compared to existing products.

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St. Louis Business Journal
23 october 2006

source:
http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2006/10/23/daily39.html

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. said Thursday that it has an agreement with Gintech Energy Corp. to supply the Taiwan-based firm with solar grade silicon wafers.

The agreement calls for MEMC to supply solar wafers to Gintech, a solar cell manufacturer, over a 10-year period, with pre-determined pricing, on a take or pay basis beginning in the second half of 2007, according to a release.

MEMC said it would see $2.5 billion to $3 billion in revenue from sales of the wafers over the 10-year period.

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26 October 2006
source:
http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/OCT_06/SPECT_261006.htm

Spectrolab Inc of Sylmar, CA, USA, which became a subsidiary of Boeing in 2000, has produced its two millionth multi-junction GaAs solar cell as it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

Spectrolab pioneered this type of cell in 1983, putting it into production several years later. The company says that the development gave satellite operators the option of doubling satellite power and increasing potential revenue or controlling costs by reducing spacecraft size without sacrificing capability.

“I’d like to thank the US Air Force and NASA for their visionary support of Spectrolab and early adoption of the multi-junction solar cell technology,” said Spectrolab’s president David Lillington.

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Top 10 solar cell producers for the year 2005.

Organic nanowires for smaller solar cells

10 October 2006 Source: The Engineer Online
http://www.e4engineering.com/

Irish researchers have measured photoconductivity in a single polymer nanowire, a finding that could lead to inexpensive miniaturised solar cells and photo detectors.

Both devices work by converting light into electricity, and building smaller versions of the devices will rely on nanostructured materials with good photoconducting properties. The properties of inorganic photoconducting nanowires, such as ZnO or Si, have been measured, but relatively little is known about the properties of organic nanowires. Organic nanowires could be both chemically tunable and relatively inexpensive to integrate into electronic circuits.

Gareth Redmond’s group at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork, Ireland has succeeded in measuring photoconductivity in a single polymer nanowire. The researchers fabricated the 200nm wide, 15µm long polymer wires using a simple template wetting technique. Metal contacts were made on either end of a single wire to measure the photo-induced current over several on–off cycles of a near-ultraviolet laser.

The wires’ quantum efficiency, or the number of current-carrying electrons produced per photon hitting the wire, is about 0.1 per cent, which is comparable with several inorganic nanowires. As in many polymer-based electronic devices, the limiting factors may be the non-crystalline structure and poor electrical contact with the metal leads.

Solar Cells Research Gets a Boost with new methods for conversion of long wavelength light to shorter wavelengths
2006-10-13 11:04:29

source: CCNews
http://www.ccnmag.com/news.php?id=4530

An innovative process that converts low-energy longwave photons (light particles) into higher-energy shortwave photons has been developed by a team of researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz and at the Sony Materials Science Laboratory in Stuttgart. With the skillful combination of two light-active substances, the scientists have, for the first time, manipulated normal light, such as sunlight, to combine the energy in photons with particular wavelengths (Physical Review Letters, October 4, 2006). This has previously only been achieved with a similar process using high-energy density laser light. The successful outcome of this process could lay the foundation for a new generation of more efficient solar cells.

The efficiency of solar cells today is limited, among other reasons, by the fact that the longwave, low-energy part of the sunlight cannot be used. A process that increases the low level of energy in the light particles (photons) in the longwave range, shortening their wave length, would make it possible for the solar cells to use those parts of light energy that, up to now, have been lost, resulting in a drastic increase in their efficiency. The equivalent has only been achieved previously with high-energy density laser light which, under certain conditions, combines two low-energy photons into one high-energy photon – a kind of photonic fusion.

This is a significant step forward for the scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and at the Sony Materials Science Laboratory. In developing this process, they have succeeded, for the first time, in pairing up photons from normal light, thus altering the wavelength. They used two substances in solution, platinum octaethyl porphyrin and diphenylan-thracene, which converted the longwave green light from a normal light source into shortwave blue light. Similar to the process in laser light, this also pairs up photons, but in a different way.

When a molecule is manipulated by laser light to take up two photons, which is only probable if it is literally bombarded with a laser beam of photons, the molecules in this case only receive one photon. Two photon partners are brought together between the molecules via a different mechanism called triplet-triplet annihilation. By selecting different, corresponding “matchmaker” molecules, it is possible to combine the energy from photons from the entire sunlight spectrum.

Manufacturing plants to produce solar cells at a daily rate equal to the entire solar-cell production in 1980.

By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
SAN JOSE, Calif., October 17, 2006
http://news.com.com/

Any way you look at it, the solar business is going to be big in 2010, according to equipment manufacturer Applied Materials.

By then, a number of solar-cell manufacturers will be running plants with 10 production lines, and each production line will be capable of squeezing out 100 megawatts worth of solar cells a year, Charlie Gay, vice president and general manager of Applied’s Solar Business Group, said on Tuesday during a luncheon briefing at Solar Power 2006, a conference taking place here this week.

That comes to 1,000 megawatts a year per factory, which is about how much electricity gets produced by a coal or nuclear plant, he said. Build a megasize solar factory, therefore, and you don’t have to build a coal-fired power plant. Put another way, the entire output of solar cells made in 1980 could be produced in a day in one of these plants.

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AstroPower, Inc./ APi-030-MNA 30W Single Crystal Module w/o connectors (was AP-30)
AstroPower, Inc./ APi-030-MNB 30W Single Crystal Module w/o connectors (was AP-30)
AstroPower, Inc./ APi-045-MNA 45W Single Crystal Module w/o connectors (was AP-45)
AstroPower, Inc./ APi-045-MNB 45W Single Crystal Moduel w/o connectors (was AP-45)

AstroPower, Inc./ APx-045-MNA 45W Apex Module w/o connectors (was APx-45)
AstroPower, Inc./ APx-045-MNB 45W Apex Module w/o connectors (was APx-45)
AstroPower, Inc./ APx-45 45W Apex Module
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MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC announces High Power Type Lead-free Solder
Photovoltaic Solar Cell Modules for Overseas Market

Tokyo, September 01, 2006

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (President and CEO: Setsuhiro Shimomura) announced today it will introduce high output lead-free solder photovoltaic (PV) modules for the overseas market on October 1, 2006. Using larger size solar cells, the six new models will be capable of high output, with one model the first capable of a maximum output of 185W. The modules will be displayed at the 21st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition in Dresden, Germany, starting September 4.

Polycrystalline Si Solar cell Modules

PV-MF 185TD4 / 185 W /24.4V – 7.58A /efficiency 13.4%
PV-MF 180TD4 / 180 W /24.2V – 7.45A /efficiency 13.0%
PV-MF 175TD4 / 175 W /23.9V – 7.32A /efficiency 12.7%
PV-MF 130TE4N / 130 W /17.4V – 7.47A /efficiency 12.9%
PV-MF 125TE4N / 125 W /17.3V – 7.23A /efficiency 12.4%
PV-MF 120TE4N / 120 W /17.2V – 6.99A /efficiency 11.9%

By increasing the size of our high conversion efficiency photovoltaic cells from 150 mm to 156 mm we were able to increase maximum module output 9% compared to previous model PV-MF170EB4. These modules make it possible to configure a large-scale system with fewer modules, thus using less module rack support material and contributing to total system cost reduction. We were further able to improve module output by increasing the distance between cells, and placing a back film in these spaces that reflects light back onto the cells.

SUNTECH SOLAR CELL MODULES

Products from Suntech -Australia
http://www.suntechaustralia.com.au/products/categories.php?cat_name=solar

Suntech Australia Pty Ltd
21 Simcock St, Somerville, Victoria 3912, Australia
Phone : (+61) (3) 5977 9489 Fax: (+61) (3) 5977 6124
Email: info@suntechaustralia.com.au

STA002-12 2 Watt 12 Volt Solar Module

STA002-12 2 Watt 12 Volt $59.00 Unit Price [AUD] $ Price+ GST & shipping as applicable
The STA002-12 modules are composed of 36 multicrystalline silicon solar cells of similar performance, interconnected in series to obtain the 12 Volt output. A heavy-duty anodized aluminium frame provides strength and convenient mounting access. For each 18 cells series strings, one bypass diode is installed.

STA005-12 5 Watt 12 Volt $95.00 (AUS $)
can provide a constant trickle charge to RV, marine or caravan batteries ensuring they are in top condition when required.

STA010-12 10 Watt 12 Volt $129.00 (AUS $)
Helps run pumps, lights, fans, and small appliances such as stereos, televisions and VCRs in caravans, boats or cabins.

STA020-12 20 Watt 12 Volt $203.00 (AUS $)
ideal for running lights and small appliances such as TVs, VCRs, computers, radios and water pumps.

STA040-12 40 Watt 12 Volt $380.00 (AUS $)
power in a range of sunlight conditions to RV, marine or caravan batteriesm ideal for multiple 12 Volt appliances.

STA060-12 60 Watt 12 Volt $543.00 (AUS $)
ideal for multiple 12 Volt appliances, will provide power in a range of sunlight conditions to RV, marine or caravan batteries.

STA085-12 85 Watt 12 Volt $663.00 (AUS $)
provides supplemental power to villages, pumps, lighting equipment and a range of other applications.

STA120-12 120 Watt 12 Volt $991.00 (AUS $)
designed to provide power for larger electrical applications and remote area power supplies (RAPS).

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