Solar Cells Info

Tapping the sun to power UAE homes

By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter /21 April 2007

source: Gulf News
http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Technology/10119770.html

Dubai: Houses fully powered by solar energy will soon be available for home owners in the country.  Scandinavian renewable energy experts will be in Abu Dhabi and Dubai later this month to promote solar housing in the UAE after working on the idea in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
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By William M. Welch, USA TODAY
source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2007-04-17-air-force-solar-power_N.htm?csp=34

The largest solar power plant in North America will soon be providing electricity to an Air Force base in the Nevada desert.  The military says the plant, scheduled to power up at Nellis Air Force Base by the end of the year, shows that solar energy can effectively meet part of the country’s energy needs.
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Apr 20 2007
source:
http://www.environmentalleader.com

Estee Lauder has installed a 600-kilowatt solar energy system at its manufacturing facility in Oakland, New Jersey. The project is one of New Jersey’s largest rooftop mounted solar installations as well the largest third-party solar energy supply contract in the state.

Designed and installed by DT Solar and owned by an investment partnership created by MMA Renewable Ventures, the system incorporates more than 3,000 solar panels installed atop a facility that houses manufacturing for Estee Lauder’s Aramis Brand. The project has the complete support of facility owner and operator Westminster Management. Expected to generate over 650,000 kilowatt-hours annually, the solar energy system will offset production of more than 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide over its expected 25-year lifetime.  Earlier this year, Ted Turner partnered with Dome-Tech Solar to create DT Solar, a Turner renewable energy company.

Jeanette Pavini Reporting /April 20, 2007
Source: CBS Broadcasting
http://cbs5.com/consumer/local_story_110194943.html

If you want to go solar, you don’t have to commit to putting panels on your house. Portable solar charges help more people recieve the environmental benefits of solar power.  Becky Worley of Yahoo Tech showed CBS 5 Consumerwatch the Solio, one of the new wave of portable solar devices.  “The way it works, you just unfold these photovoltaic cells, you expose it to direct sunlight and it can get a full charge on its battery in 8 hours,” she said.
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Source:  Green Energy News
April 17, 2007 – Vol.12 No.4
http://www.green-energy-news.com/arch/nrgs2007/20070051.html

Honda is developing them, so is Shell in its venture it calls Avancis. Less familiar names are also working on what could be the next generation of solar cells and thus solar products: DayStar Technologies, HelioVolt, Nanosolar, W¸rth Solar and Odersun.   Those next-gen cells, CIS (Copper Indium Selenide), and their close cousins CIGS (Copper Indium Gallium Diselenide), offer solar-to-electric conversion efficiencies about the same as silicon solar (efficiencies in the mid to high teens) but conceivably could be offered at a much lower cost.

The reason? CIS and CIGS are very thin, thin-film solar technologies, a 100th or thinner than traditional silicon. Very thin equates to very little material is needed to make them: The less material, the less cost. Yet the commercialization of CIS and CIGS technologies has been slowed by adequate high speed production methods. CIS and CIGS cells are difficult to make. Difficult to produce means high costs despite the lower cost of materials.
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By DAMON DARLIN, New York Times,  April 14, 2007
Source: The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/business/14money.html?ref=science

With a $2,000 federal tax credit and generous rebates from states like New Jersey and California, it has never cost less to install a solar power system.  And it still makes no economic sense. You might want photovoltaic solar panels to generate your own electricity out of a belief that you will save the planet. But, as is the case with hybrid vehicles, you certainly should not do it to save money.  An online calculator (www.findsolar.com/index.php?page=rightforme) created by solar power advocates and the Department of Energy demonstrates just how hard it is to justify the switch.
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Posted by Steph Yiu April 18, 2007 09:30AM
Source: Oregonlive.com
http://blog.oregonlive.com/breakingnews/2007/04/

Here’s one way to get attention for a cause: Strap a 20-pound solar panel to your back and walk from Portland to Salem.  That’s just what a couple of marchers did in recent days, with company from 10 others. The dozen left an environmental rally Saturday in downtown Portland for the 53.5-mile walk to the Capitol. They wanted to raise awareness about global warming. (more…)

Press Association and Evening Standard  /19 April 2007
Source:  Thisismoney.co.uk
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/consumer/caring/article.html?in_article_id=419527&in_page_id=511

Britain’s biggest household energy supplier said today it is launching a ‘New Energy’ service aimed at winning over customers worried about their carbon footprint or keen to save money by generating or saving their own power.  British Gas New Energy will sell and help install rooftop solar heating panels for customers to heat their own water, and will give people the chance to offset their CO2 emissions through schemes that buy credits from other firms or countries that have exceeded their own targets.

In addition, customers who buy the solar panelling in some areas will be able to earn a discount of up to £500 on their council tax bills through an agreement between British Gas and the local authorities. The solar panel scheme is currently running in Salford, Conwy in North Wales, South Cambridgeshire, Taunton Deane in Somerset, Runnymede in Middlesex and Braintree in Essex, but British Gas said it expected it to be adopted by more local authorities in time. Centrica’s hot water solar panels cost from £4,300.
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By Associated Press. /Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Source: Boston Herald
http://news.bostonherald.com/national/south/view.bg?articleid=195441

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Former Vice President Al Gore’s upscale neighborhood granted the environmental activist approval Tuesday to install 33 solar panels on the roof of his mansion. Belle Meade had blocked his application until new rules were approved unanimously late Tuesday, said Gore spokesman Chris Song. The city located within metropolitan Nashville said the panels must be placed in areas where they can’t be seen by neighbors.
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Kyocera to invest 30 billion yen (about $250 million) globally, raise annual production capacity to 500 megawatts by 2011

source: Kyocera Solar /press release /April 18, 2007
http://www.kyocerasolar.com/news/news_detail.cfm?key=361
San Diego, CA – April 18, 2007 – Kyocera Corporation today announced plans to expand its annual solar module manufacturing capacity to 500 megawatts (MW) by the end of March 2011 — more than double its current annual capacity of 240MW — in response to global demand.  The company has secured supply contracts with silicon producers to ensure the steady increase in production capacity.  “For the last two years, as we endured a shortage of solar-grade silicon, Kyocera has focused on improving solar-cell quality and energy conversion efficiency,” stated Tatsumi Maeda, senior managing executive officer of Kyocera Corp. and general manager of the company’s Corporate Solar Energy Group.  “Among the world’s fully integrated suppliers that manage every stage of the process, from casting silicon ingot to engineering and supplying complete solar electric generating systems, our goal is to lead the industry in both quality and quantity.”
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