Solar Cells Info

By Kevin Bullis /March 21, 2007
source: MIT Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18415/page1/

Much more efficient solar cells may soon be possible as a result of technology that more efficiently captures and uses light. StarSolar, a startup based in Cambridge, MA, aims to capture and use photons that ordinarily pass through solar cells without generating electricity. The company, which is licensing technology developed at MIT, claims that its designs could make it possible to cut the cost of solar cells in half while maintaining high efficiency. This would make solar power about as cheap as electricity from the electric grid.

The effort uses a type of material called a photonic crystal that makes it possible to “do things with light that have never been done before,” says John Joannopoulos, a professor of physics at MIT who heads the lab where the new designs for solar applications were developed. Photonic crystals, which can be engineered to reflect and diffract all the photons in specific wavelengths of light, have long been attractive for optical communications, in which the materials can be used to direct and sort light-borne data. Now new manufacturing processes could make the photonic crystals practical for much-larger-scale applications such as photovoltaics.
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March 14, 2007
Source: Ascent Solar /press release
http://www.ascentsolar.com/view.php?tg=press&id=19
Hydro has entered into an agreement to invest USD 9.2 million in the American solar energy company Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc., which has developed a super thin and flexible solar cell technology. The investment gives Hydro a 23 per cent ownership interest in Ascent Solar. “Ascent Solar’s flexible thin film is very exciting. Not only due to the low weight that makes the solar cells easy to transport, install and maintain, but also because flexible solar cells have a large number of potential applications in the future”, says Jørgen C. Arentz Rostrup, who heads the market activities in Hydro’s Oil & Energy business area.
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By Pam Radtke Russell / March 11, 2007
source: nola.com
http://www.nola.com/business/t-p/index.ssf?/base/money-1/117359952326600.xml&coll=1

For some people living in the Lower 9th Ward, sustainable building and renewable power are more than just utopian concepts. Nine homes and the Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association office in the Lower 9th took a big step toward becoming self-sufficient last month. They were fitted with donated solar systems that are capable of producing 20 percent to 30 percent of their electricity.

If homes in the neighborhood had been equipped with solar power before Hurricane Katrina, the community wouldn’t have had to wait so long for power to be restored, said Patricia Jones, director of the NENA, a recovery center in the Lower 9th Ward.
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By IAN ROSS /March 17, 2007
Source: Northern Ontario Business
http://www.nob.on.ca/industry/energy/03-07-remote.asp

Outfitters and remote lodge owners are slowly gaining a measure of energy independence from their fuel-hogging diesel generators.  Off-grid fly-in lodges have depended almost exclusively on generators to power every aspect of their back country operations.

Remote outfitters are switching to a government assistance program for solar energy.But with high fuel prices, combined with tough times in tourism and tight budgets for camp operators have made the switch from diesel to solar power almost too risky to try, says Doug Reynolds, executive director for the Northern Ontario Tourist Outfitters Association (NOTO).
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By THOMAS CONTENT /March 5, 2007
Source: Journal Sentinel Online
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=573302

Every time the sun shines, Steve Schutz sees the plants in his greenhouse and the refund checks on his utility bill grow.  With 256 solar panels covering its roof, the Urban Ecology Center recently unveiled the largest solar installation system in Wisconsin. The panels generate 44 kilowatts of power.  His New Berlin business, Sunnyslope Gardens, has long relied on the sun, but now it’s powered by it as well. “Being in the greenhouse business, I use solar energy every day with my green plants and producing my crop,” Schutz said. “But I wanted to take it one step further.”
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Source: Construction and Maintenance News
http://home.nestor.minsk.by/build/news/2007/03/1513.html

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District, SMUD, and Lennar Homes have signed an agreement that represents the largest solar new homes partnership in the United States. The agreement will bring more than 1,200 high-efficient solar homes to the area. Solar photovoltaic systems will be built into 1,254 new homes in 11 communities in the SMUD service territory. The first 506 homes will be constructed in the new Anatolia subdivision of Rancho Cordova and 79 new homes will be built in the Village Greens community of Natomas. Groundbreaking is planned for March.
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Roxana Orellana /The Salt Lake Tribune, March 12, 2007
Source. The Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5415859

KEARNS – Energy generated since January at Entheos Academy is enough to power nine homes for a day or operate a television for more than 3,000 hours.  That’s thanks to the recent installation of 12 solar panels in the roof of the first-year charter school at 4710 W. 6200 South. “We want to get students thinking about [renewable energy] and get them excited,” said Brian Smith, manager of Renewable Synergy LLC, which designed and installed the panels.  Rocky Mountain Power’s Blue Sky renewable energy program awarded $37,500 to pay for the project after approving Smith’s funding request.
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Source: BuilderOnline /Business Wire /March 12, 2007
http://www.builderonline.com/industry-news.asp?sectionID=26&articleID=456365

Harvard Communities, Inc., one of Colorado’s most respected semi-custom homebuilders, announced that all Architect Collection homes in the Stapleton redevelopment will now come with photovoltaic (PV) solar power as a standard feature. Called the “Harvard Solar Advantage,” the initiative is the first announced by any semi-custom homebuilder in Colorado.  For Architect Collection homeowners, the solar PV panels will provide approximately 30% of their home’s electrical power needs. The solar PV system will integrate seamlessly with the home’s electrical service, allowing excess power produced to be sold back to the utility company. When this happens, the electric meter spins backwards to provide retail credit for the electricity the solar home produced. At night or during cloudy weather, the home pulls power from the grid as normal, thereby spinning the meter forward again. Additionally, the Harvard Solar Advantage initiative, combined with the energy-efficient home building measures already being incorporated, will result in the reduction of over 7,000 pounds of excess carbon dioxide — 3.5 tons – per Architect Collection home annually.
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March 14, 2007
Source: Budapest Sun
http://www.budapestsun.com/cikk.php?id=25972

Hungarian solar panel manufacturer HelioGrid Magyarország Napelemgyártó Kft announced on Friday (Mar 9) that it is to build a Ft16.5bn ($87.3m) factory in Rétság (55km north of Budapest, in Nógrád county), wire services MTI and Interfax reported. The company said the thin-film solar module plant is necessary to meet increasing demand for the product in the region. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2008, creating 810 jobs.

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Rodney Tanaka Staff Writer /March 16, 2007
Source: Whittier Daily News
http://www.whittierdailynews.com/business/ci_5420801

PASADENA – A local company’s solar power efforts received a $4 million energy boost. Pasadena-based Soliant Energy, formerly Practical Instruments, received $4 million in funding for its Heliotube technology from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America Initiative. The initiative has $168 million in funding for 13 projects, pending congressional approval.  Heliotube provides solar concentrator technology in the same flat panel form traditionally used by solar installers.

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