Solar Cells Info

by Lisa Zyga/ March 27, 2008
Source: PhysOrg.com
http://www.physorg.com/news125842769.html

In the new solar cell design by MIT researchers more light can be captured increasing efficiency and decreasing cost per watt. Researchers from MIT have improved commercial solar cells that will soon be significantly cheaper and more efficient than those available today. Ely Sachs, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, predicts that by 2012 such solar cells will be comparable in price with coal, which is about $1 per watt.

Sachs and his colleagues have started a company called 1366 Technologies. With the help of a recent $12.4 million grant, the team is building a pilot-scale manufacturing plant to fabricate their first batch of solar cells. The cells currently have an efficiency of 19.5%, and cost about $1.65 per watt. That´s a 27% improvement in efficiency over similar commercial solar cells of today, which have about 15% efficiency and cost about $2.10 per watt.
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Source: Marketwire/CNN Money.com  / March 28, 2008
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/0381275.htm

Solar Thin Films, Inc. (OTCBB: SLTN) today announced that it has signed a three-year marketing agreement with CG Solar. Under the terms of the agreement, Solar Thin Films will initially have non-exclusive rights to distribute CG Solar’s photovoltaic products within North America and Europe. Solar Thin Films will receive exclusive rights to distribute CG Solar’s photovoltaic products within North America, for the duration of the marketing agreement, upon the aggregate sale of 3 MWs of CG Solar’s product within North America and Europe.
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John Walko ,  EE Times Europe
London,  19 March 2008
Source: EETimes
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206904594

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. is planning to invest $70 million in a major expansion of capacity to make photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, to meet what it says is huge growing demand worldwide.  Mitsubishi (Tokyo) will boost production at two plants in Japan, aiming to boost capacity from 150 megawatts last year to 500 megawatts by its 2013 financial year. Annual production capacity of PV cells will be increased at the Nakatsugawa Works Iida Factory (Nagano Prefecture), and of modules at its Nakatsugawa Works in Kyoto.
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Changzhou, China, March 9, 2008
Source: Trina Solar Ltd. press release/PRNewswire
http://www.trinasolar.com/front/en/news.php?newid=57

Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL; “Trina Solar” or the “Company”), a leading integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic products from the production of ingots, wafers and cells to the assembly of PV modules, founded in 1997, today announced that it has signed an agreement with GT Solar Incorporated (“GT Solar”) to purchase primary converter and reactor systems for its planned polysilicon production project for a total consideration of approximately US$49 million, with purchase price to be paid in installments over an approximate period of 12 to 18 months. The execution of this agreement is subject to final approval by the Boards of both companies.
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By Michael Berger, March 4, 2008
Source: Nanowerk Spotlight
http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=4798.php

Nanotechnology is already part of the process through which silicon-based photovoltaic solar cells – which make up some 95 percent of the solar cell market today – produce electricity. Nanotechnology is also the focus of research and development of a new generation of solar power technology that includes organic and inorganic solar cells derived from nanocrystals that can convert sunlight into electricity at a fraction of the cost of silicon solar cells. (more…)

BY Jon Van,  March 3, 2008
Source: Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/
chi-mon_notebook_0303mar03,1,6604444.story

Efforts by Northwestern University scientists to boost the efficiency of plastic-like flexible solar cells could make the technology commercially viable.  Researchers have demonstrated a 40 percent efficiency increase in organic photovoltaic cells and believe that with further work they can raise that output significantly. Flexible solar panels could be manufactured cheaply using technology similar to printing newspapers or the packaging used for potato chips, said Tobin J. Marks, an NU chemistry professor who co-leads the research team with Robert Chang, a materials science professor.
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Source: EMSNow.com /March 7, 2008
http://www.emsnow.com/npps/story.cfm?pg=story&id=32150

DEK has announced a complete metallization line for solar-cell production rated at 1200 wafers per hour, saving manufacturers the time and expense of commissioning and integrating equipment from multiple suppliers. The first showing of this new line will be at BTU’s Solar Lab Grand Opening, in Shanghai, 18-19 March 2008.
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By Lisa Zyga /March 07, 2008
Source: PhysOrg.com
http://www.physorg.com/news124111555.html

For the first time, researchers have created solar cells made of different-sized quantum dots, each tuned to a specific wavelength of light. By arranging these quantum dots in an ordered pattern, the scientists hope that they can one day fabricate “rainbow” solar cells, which can efficiently harvest a large part of the useful spectrum of sunlight.  The group of researchers from the University of Notre Dame, Anusorn Kongkanand, Kevin Tvrdy, Kensuke Takechi, Masaru Kuno, and Prashant Kamat, have published their study in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Their research was funded by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the Department of Energy. (more…)

University of Swansea working with metals giant Corus on photovoltaic solar cells that could be “painted” onto steel as it is manufactured
James Murray, BusinessGreen, 10 Mar 2008
Source: BusinessGreen.com
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/
2211621/welsh-boffins-investigate-sci

It might sound like something out of a science fiction film, but Welsh scientists claim to have developed a method for capturing solar energy using a new type of paint-like solar cells that could be applied to steel structures, raising the prospect of new buildings that generate usable energy from their external surfaces.

Researchers at the University of Swansea claim the breakthrough was made by an engineering doctorate student who was studying how sunlight degrades paint and found that it could prove possible to develop a type of paint that could exploit a new photovoltaic method of capturing solar energy.
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By Chris Nuttall in San Francisco /March 5 2008
Source: Financial Times (ft.com)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/24e748fe-ea57-11dc-b3c9-0000779fd2ac.html

Applied Materials’ gamble on becoming a major supplier to the solar panel industry appeared to have paid off on Tuesday when it won a $1.9bn order, the biggest ever for its production equipment.  Analysts said the deal for the world’s largest supplier of equipment for the semiconductor industry was about five times bigger than any order it had ever received in its core business.
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