Solar Cells Info

January 03, 2007 18:01 PM
Source: Bernama /Malaysian News Agency
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_business.php?id=239363

ALOR STAR, Jan 3 (Bernama) — German/American wafer producing company, First Solar Inc. (First Solar), will be investing RM2 billion this April in the Kulim High Technology Park (KHTP) in Kulim, near here. Announcing this here today, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid said the state also stood to successfully attract investments from another two foreign companies.  First Solar which develops and produces thin-film photovoltaics (PV) modules is expected to make its plant at the KHTP as its largest solar panel producer in Asia. The sillicon based product of First Solar is used in various products and daily applications both in the residential sector and industrial plants.
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From Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja, 01.05.2007
source: African Thisdayonline.com
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=67290

Federal Government of Nigeria yesterday commenced action on the implementation of its Renewable Energy Master Plan (REMP) with a projection to generate at least 56MW of electricity from Solar, Wind and Small hydro power facilities. Speaking at a strategy workshop for the implemetation of REMP in Abuja, the Director General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), Professor Abubakar Sambo said about 1MW is expected to be generated from wind energy facility, 5MW from solar Panel while 50MW will be produced from small hydro sites to be developed in some parts of the country.

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Solar Thin Films Enters Agreement With Renewable Energy Solutions to Prepare for Production of Next Generation CIGS-Based Thin Film PV Equipment and Turnkey Facilities

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY — (MARKET WIRE) — January 03, 2007
source: Marketwire.com
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=199521

Solar Thin Films, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: SLTF) (“STF”) announces R&D program with Renewable Energy Solutions, Inc. (“RESI”) to develop manufacturing equipment for CIGS-based thin film PV modules. STF has signed a three-year R&D agreement with RESI to develop the next generation of manufacturing equipment utilized to produce CIGS-based thin film PV modules.
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Source.
http://www.gosolarcalifornia.ca.gov/csi/index.html

About the California Solar Initiative

As part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Million Solar Roofs Program, California has set a goal to create 3,000 megawatts of new, solar-produced electricity by 2017 – moving the state toward a cleaner energy future and helping lower the cost of solar systems for consumers.

* The California Public Utilities Commission, through its California Solar Initiative, provides over $2 billion in incentives over the next decade for existing residential homes and existing and new commercial, industrial, and agricultural properties.

* The California Energy Commission manages a 10-year, $350 million program to encourage solar in new home construction through its New Solar Homes Partnership.
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How one California winery & a San Francisco-based investment company are setting a precedent in the renewable energy industry.

by Sara Parker, Staff Writer
Hopland, California / Jan 4, 2007
Source: RenewableEnergyAccess.com
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=47009

Installed atop a bottling plant at Fetzer Vineyards in California is a shiny new 901-kilowatt photovoltaic solar array. The entire cost of the recent solar project to the Mendocino County-based winery? $0.
MMA Renewable Ventures, a subsidiary of Municipal Mortgage & Equity, LLC, coordinated the financial backing to own, operate and maintain the Fetzer Vineyard system, and sell the clean energy to Fetzer under a long-term Solar Services Agreement (SSA) contract that sets the electricity costs at a fixed rate.
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-Reviews 2006 Year End /December 28, 2006
source. Solar EnerTech Corp Press release
http://www.solarenertech.com/News/release.asp?numb=217

Solar EnerTech Corp. (OTCBB: SOEN) (the Company) is pleased to announce the inauguration of the much anticipated Joint R&D Lab facilities to be operated conjointly by both Solar EnerTech and Shanghai University during opening ceremonies held just prior to the Holiday Season. A number of invited guests including Shanghai government officials, US Embassy Commercial Section officials, US and Canadian investment groups and media attended the opening ceremony. During the event Prof. Wang, Deputy President of Shanghai University, and Leo S. Young, president and CEO of Solar EnerTech, unveiled a nickel-plated plaque inscribed with the Joint R&D Lab’s name in both English and Chinese.

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The USB Solar Bikini Look Hot, Charge the iPod, Cool Your Beer
– iDrink, a very innovative project by Andrew Schneider

By: Alex Vochin, Technology Editor
source:
http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-USB-Solar-Bikini-Look-Hot-Charge-the-iPod-Cool-Your-Beer-42676.shtml

Wouldn’t you love to have a bikini swimsuit cool enough to make people turn their heads, and that will also be capable of charging your beloved iPod (this is for the ladies)? Wouldn’t you love to go to the beach with your hot, sexy girlfriend and make her wear a bikini that will make her look even hotter while cooling down your can of beer (this is for us guys)?

Well, it seems that now the aforementioned possibilities might become true quite soon, due to a guy called Andrew Schneider who has developed, as a project for the ITP Winter Show in New York, what he calls the iDrink swimware line of solar bikinis.
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Petoskey Grad key part of Solar Car Team Challenge

By Ryan Bentley News-Review Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 2, 2007 1:17 PM EST
source:
http://www.petoskeynews.com/articles/2007/01/02/news/local_regional/news1.txt

Momentum, a project of the University of Michigan Solar Car Team, is shown during the 2005 World Solar Challenge race in Australia. The team will enter a new solar car, Continuum, in the 2007 WSC race. (Courtesy Photo/David Hancock). In preparing for a car race across Australia this fall, Petoskey resident Garrick Williams and his teammates will try hard to make the sun shine on their entry. Given their vehicle’s power source, the U-M Solar Car Team’s need for sunshine is quite literal.
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source:
http://stockerblog.blogspot.com/2006/12/updated-list-solar-energy-stocks.html

The following is an updated list of the pure plays and semi-pure plays in the solar energy business. Companies which have a very small portion of their business in solar were excluded (e.g. GE, PG&E). The list shows the name of the company, the stock market symbol, what exchange the stock is traded on, and their business.

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Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores is thinking big about solar power.
By Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com /January 04 2007
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/hardware/0,39042972,61979238,00.htm

The company put out an RFP (request for proposal) last month to solar electric suppliers and expects to receive responses early this month, according to a representative. The move is part of a long-term plan to convert to renewable energy sources. Wal-Mart is keeping the details of the proposal under wraps as the process is still ongoing. However, one person who saw the proposal said that if completed, it could amount to a significantly large installation–on the order of 100 megawatts of power over the next five years.

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