Solar Cells Info

by Tylene, June 5, 2007
Source: Inhabitat.com
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/06/05/rizhao-the-sunshine-city/

Rizhao means “sunshine” in Chinese, which is quite an appropriate moniker… Since 2001, Rizhao City (Shandong Province, China) officials have been educating the public and initiating new building regulations to promote the use of solar panels in their city. Traffic lights, street lamps and over 60,000 greenhouses are solar powered. Today, the city of nearly three million has over a half-million square meters of solar water heating panels—99% of households in the central districts use solar water heaters and more than 30% do so in the outlying villages.
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June 8, 2007
Source: Techshout.com
http://www.techshout.com/mobile-phones/2007/08/

Solar-powered Mobile Phone Hi-Tech Wealth, a well known telecommunication products supplier in China has developed a mobile phone that utilizes solar energy to recharge itself. The company also claims that it is the world’s first to use solar power to recharge a phone battery.  According to the company, a scale-like solar panel on the top side of the clamshell-designed phone can also be recharged by light from other sources including candles.
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An hour of sunshine gives enough juice for a 40-minute call
J. Mark Lytle, 12 Jun 2007
Source: Tech.co.uk
http://www.tech.co.uk/gadgets/phones/mobile-phones/news/first-solar-powered-mobile-phone-hits-china?articleid=1046418232

Readers living in the UK might not be too concerned about yet another solar-powered gadget, but for those of us in the Far East, the latest mobile phone to go on sale in China has a distinct appeal.  The £250 S116 handset from Chinese firm Hi-Tech Wealth and first seen as a prototype at CeBIT this year is a mostly average phone except for its claim to being the world’s first solar-powered mobile. Moreover, the company’s claims make it sound like they’ve managed to get some impressive mileage out of those little solar panels.
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by Bosire Nyairo
Source: Business Daily Africa
http://www.bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1441&Itemid=4928

Dealers in solar panels have urged Kenya’s standards body to intensify quality assurance measures against imports and false labelling of poor-performing panels.  The Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) has the role of inspecting solar power items for standards and power ratings.  But some solar panel importers said Kebs’ regulatory mechanisms were failing to catch a glut of panels in the local market that do not meet Kenyan market and that do not match their advertised level of performance.
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Merrimack, NH (USA) — March 29, 2007
Source: GT Solar, Press release
http://www.gtsolar.com/news/shownews.php?id=110

GT Solar Incorporated, a global leader in photovoltaic technologies and equipment, announced today it has signed a $49 million contract to sell polysilicon reactors to the Russian company, Nitol Group. GT Solar’s reactors and silicon tetrachloride converters will be installed at Nitol’s production facility in Irkutsk, Siberia.
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Merrimack, NH, USA, June 11, 2007
Source: GT Solar, press release
http://www.gtsolar.com/news/shownews.php?id=135

GT Solar Incorporated, a global leader in photovoltaic (PV) technologies and equipment, announced today it has signed a $39.5 million contract to sell polysilicon reactors and converters to the Chinese company, Jiangsu Shunda Electronic Materials and Technology.
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Geoffrey Ramos, AHN News Writer,
Manila, Philippines, June 15, 2007
Source: All Headline News
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7007652712

Chinese power firm Sichuan Electric Power Co. is considering the development of a $1 billion-solar and wind farm in the northern part of the Philippines.  Special Envoy for China Francis Chua confirmed Sichuan’s proposed plan, which was one of the major business investments discussed during President Gloria Arroyo’s recent visit to China.
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Kingston, Jamaica, June 15
Source: UPI International /www.upi.com

The University of Technology in Jamaica has launched the island’s first solar-powered vehicle.  The solar-powered golf cart, called the Solcar, was developed by four final-year mechanical engineering students. It has a range of about 30 miles and has a solar panel attached to its top. Acting project supervisor Brian Silvera estimates the Solcar is able to operate for two days after being fully charged, the Jamaican Observer reported.
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St. Louis Park, Minn., June 15, 2007
Source. EarthTimes.org
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/73188.html

St. Louis Park, Minn., is installing a Wi-Fi network powered with the use of solar technology. The city said it is installing a 400 access-point solar-powered Wi-Fi network, called ParkWiFi. The network is designed to provide wireless Internet coverage across all 10 square miles of the city, a suburb of Minneapolis with 44,000 residents, according to the city and Arinc Inc., the Annapolis, Md.-based contractor on the project, Computerworld reported. (more…)

New Requirements for Sustainable Housing in UK Represent Significant Market Opportunity for Solar Energy Systems
Wuxi, China, June 15, 2007
Source: Suntech Power press release /PRWire

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), one of the world’s leading manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, today announced the demonstration of its MSK Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) system at the OffSite exhibition at the UK Building Research Establishment. The installation is part of Kingspan Off- Site’s innovative “Lighthouse” net-zero carbon home, which is the first house design to achieve the British government’s Code for Sustainable Homes Level 6.

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