Solar Cells Info

Nuying Huang, Taipei; Esther Lam, DIGITIMES, 31 August 2007
http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20070830PD222.html

The persistent shortage of polysilicon may reach an equilibrium in the first half of 2008 at the earliest, as both new comers and existing players all plan for expansion in 2008, said E-ton Solar Tech company general manager Chin-Yao Tsai.  M.Setek from Japan and DC Chemical from Korea, the two new comers in polysilicon production who are both acknowledged by industry players for their relatively strong competitiveness in the industry, both plan for new supply in 2008, Tsai said. M.Setek plans to have an annual output of 5,200 tons of polysilicon in 2008 while DC Chemical plans for 3,000 tons in annual output. More polysilicon supply is also going to be available from some China-based makers, he noted.
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* Booming demand for solar energy systems spurs photovoltaic production
* Innovative thin-film technologies on the advance
* Productronica exhibitors display technologies for the complete photovoltaic production chain from silicon to ready-to-operate solar modules in the “MicroNanoWorld” exhibition area

Source:
http://www.presseagentur.com/mmi/detail.php?pr_id=1450&lang=en

Electricity costs are increasing, and consumers are looking for alternatives. In 2005 alone, solar energy systems with an overall output of 912 megawatts (MW) were installed in roofs and in open areas in Germany compared to only 597 MW in the previous year (Source: PHOTON International). This makes Germans the world champions in matters of “green electricity”, because systems for a total of 290 MW were installed in Japan and for 100 MW in the USA in the same period, for example.
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Xinyu City, China and Sunnyvale, CA, Aug. 20, 2007
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/AQM08320082007-1.htm

LDK Solar Co., Ltd. , a leading manufacturer of multicrystalline solar wafers, announced that the company hosted a groundbreaking ceremony on August 18, 2007 to celebrate the commencement of construction on its polysilicon production plant. This event was hosted by Mr. Xiaofeng Peng, Founder, Chairman and CEO. Attending the ceremony as the key honorable guest was Mr. Xinxiong Wu, Governor of Jiangxi Province with many other honorable guests from Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, the U.S., Europe, India and other parts of the world to celebrate this event.
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By Kinga Dema, Kuensel Online, 20 August 2007
Source: Kuensel Online (Bhutan’s news)
http://www.kuenselonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8917

The Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction is sponsoring 26 rural Bhutanese women to be trained in India in the use and maintenance of solar equipment in their villages.  According to the Department of Energy, the executing agency, the women, who left for India on August 17, were selected from 18 villages from across the country. They will be trained for six months in Rajasthan Barefoot College, a community based non-governmental organisation.
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by Andrea Eilenberger, The Express-Times
Phillipsburg, August 24, 2007
By ANDREA EILENBERGER

Town planning board members Thursday night approved the manufacturer’s plan to construct a canopy to support solar panels. Using the panels will save the Riverside Way plant about 25 percent of its regular energy use per year, plant manager Raymond Freaney said.  Alternative use is “definitely an initiative throughout the state,” Freaney said.
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New Delhi, Delhi, India, Aug 22, 2007
Source: IndiaPRWire.com
http://www.indiaprwire.com/businessnews/20070822/24040.htm

Some 25,000 villages in India will get solar energy by 2012 as part of the government’s plan to promote clean energy in the country, Minister for New and Renewable Energy Vilas Muttemwar said here Wednesday.  ‘With such a vast pool of renewable resources available, the government wants to provide energy in every village and lighting in every house,’ Muttemwar said in his address at an event to mark Energy Day in memory of late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
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Aug. 23, 2007 /Energy Tribune Staff
Source. EnergyTribune.com
http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=608

India is getting a share of the booming global market for photovoltaic panels. California-based Signet Solar recently announced that it will invest $2 billion over the next decade to set up three solar photovoltaic manufacturing units in India.  When completed, each of the three plants will have an annual output of 300 megawatts. Signet Solar chairman and founder Prabhu Goel said he was “convinced that India is ideal for manufacturing the world’s lowest-cost solar modules.” The company is also planning a research and development center in India.
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New Delhi, Aug. 21, 2007
Source: PTI / The Hindu online
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/218200708212123.htm

Reliance Industries, India’s biggest oil firm by market value, will soon foray into solar power generation through pilot projects that will supply electricity to a few villages in Maharashtra.  “In the next 8-12 months, pilots will be launched in 38 villages in Maharashtra. These will not be connected with the grid and the solar ecosystems will provide power to these villages,” RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said here.
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By Sally Apgar, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
West Palm Beach, FL, September 1, 2007
Source: South Florida Sun Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/
sfl-flpsolartrain0901pnsep01,0,6274584.story

WEST PALM BEACH – People are waiting on the “Solar City” train platform. One is a businessman, sporting a 1950s-era brown fedora. His gray suit jacket hangs over his left arm and a brown briefcase dangles from his right hand. He looks almost like he’s sweating in the hot sun. A long-legged boy in a red T-shirt and shorts is lounging on a wooden bench, hot dog in hand.
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Peter Clarke, EE Times Europe,
London, Aug 27, 2007
Source. EETimes.com
http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201802370

Solar Semiconductor Inc. (Sunnyvale, Calif.) has said it has signed a supply contract with Q-Cells AG (Thalheim, Germany) worth $170 million.  Solar, with its manufacturing base in Hyderabad, India, has signed a multiyear agreement for the supply of 156-mm mono- and multicrystalline cells by Q-Cells for use in module production in Solar’s photovoltaic module manufacturing plant in India. (more…)