Solar Cells Info

Source: News.bg Bulgaria / Jan 21, 2008
http://international.ibox.bg/news/id_1710030857

Two solar station for the production of power will be constructed in Pirin by the end of the year, informed “Viara” newspaper.  So far 51 companies take care of 70 small water-power plants in the region. According to the experts there are no attractive places around the mountain streams for new plants to be built. Thus, the putting of panels which to transform the sunlight into power, is the most alternative method at the moment. A map of the country, which gives clarity as to where it is most proper the equipment to be put, has already been made.
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Daly City, CA, Jan 21, 2008
by Sasha Vasilyuk, The Examiner, Jan 21, 2008
Source: SF Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/a-1170554~District_to_save_money__environment_with_solar_panels.html

Jefferson Union High School District will soon become the first in the county to go solar.  In an innovative effort to save money and teach students about the environment, the district plans to install solar panels on the roofs of all its schools.  The district board of trustees approved a 20-year deal with a private solar energy provider, UPC Solar. The deal would require no investment by the district and will save more than $3 million in energy costs over the next two decades, district Superintendent Mike Crilly said.
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RENO, Nev., Jan. 22, 2008
Source: EPOD International Inc, press release/ PrimeNewswire
http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=134720

EPOD International Inc, a Grid-Integrated, eco-power utility and electric power systems provider, announced that it has received conditional approval for a 20 Megawatt solar power facility located in the Thunderbay area. EPOD estimates that the facility would generate aggregate revenue of approximately $300 million over a 20 year term. EPOD plans to continue to secure additional installation sites as part of its overall recurring revenue model.
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A huge increase in contracts to supply the grid means the province may soon be home to some of the planet’s biggest arrays

by Richard Blackwell, Globe and Mail Update / January 22, 2008
source:GlobeandMail.com
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080122.wrsolar22/BNStory/

Ontario is on its way to becoming a major centre for solar power, and will soon see thousands of solar panels spread out over acres of land, feeding clean power into the power grid.  Year-end numbers show an explosion of interest in building solar generating systems, from individuals who want to put a few panels on their roof, to businesses investing in huge solar farms.
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ScienceDaily, Jan. 17, 2008
Source: ScienceDaily.com
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080114101837.htm
Adapted from materials provided by Durham University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

A national team of scientists led by experts at Durham University are embarking on one of the UK’s largest ever research projects into photovoltaic (PV) solar energy.  The £6.3million PV-21 programme will focus on making thin-film light absorbing cells for solar panels from sustainable and affordable materials.  The four-year project, which begins in April (2008), is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the SUPERGEN initiative.
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Jan 21, 2008
Source: FabTech.org
http://www.fabtech.org/content/view/6001/

Although they both participate in the emerging copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaics sector, Ascent Solar Technology and International Solar Electric Technology (ISET) have at least as many differences between them as things in common. Ascent’s PV roots go back to work begun at ITN Energy Systems in the early 1990s, while ISET first hung out its shingle in March 1985. ITN created Ascent in 2005, and the new venture has been publicly traded since 2006, while ISET has been and remains fiercely independent. Ascent’s process technology uses vacuum-based coevaporation and sputtering, yet ISET favors a nonvacuum ink-print/selenization approach. Both use molybdenum for back contacts and zinc oxide for their front contacts, although ISET adds ITO to the front. ISET’s current manufacturing strategy employs batch processing on glass, while Ascent pursues a roll-to-roll production scheme, with flexible plastic as its substrate of choice. Ascent is based in Littleton, Colorado; ISET calls Chatsworth home, in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley.
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Jan 14, 2008
Source: FabTech.Org
http://www.fabtech.org/content/view/5956/

Few solar photovoltaic sectors exhibit as volatile a combination of hype and promise as the copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS) thin-film segment. A handful of companies–Global Solar, Wurth, Showa Shell, for example—are already manufacturing relatively modest amounts of commercial products using CIGS (or its cousin, CIS) films on glass, stainless steel, or flexible substrates, while a larger number are just developing (or trying to develop) processes, building and characterizing (or trying to build and characterize) pilot or initial manufacturing lines, or talking (and talking) about building volume-manufacturing facilities. (more…)

By Cody Kraatz, Bay Area News Group / Jan 2, 2008
Source: San Jose Mercury News
http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_7865498?nclick_check=1

A group of residents is trying to put the sun in Sunnyvale and turn the city into a sea of rooftop photovoltaic panels and solar water heaters with a grassroots group-buy program. “The whole purpose for our group is to maximize and accelerate the adoption of solar energy,” said James Tuleya, a Sunnyvale Cool Cities Team leader spearheading the solar program, which is also hosting a series of educational seminars.
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By 2050 solar power could end U.S. dependence on foreign oil and slash greenhouse gas emissions
By Ken Zweibel, James Mason and Vasilis Fthenakis
Scientific American Magazine –  December 16, 2007
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-solar-grand-plan&page=1

High prices for gasoline and home heating oil are here to stay. The U.S. is at war in the Middle East at least in part to protect its foreign oil interests. And as China, India and other nations rapidly increase their demand for fossil fuels, future fighting over energy looms large. In the meantime, power plants that burn coal, oil and natural gas, as well as vehicles everywhere, continue to pour millions of tons of pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere annually, threatening the planet.
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by Eric Beauchemin, Jan 7, 2008
Source: Radio Netherlands
http://www.radionetherlands.nl/radioprogrammes/earthbeat/080107-solar-energy-africa

If there’s one thing Africa has an abundance of, it’s sunlight. And if there’s one thing it really lacks it’s electricity: at night, when you fly over Africa, all you see during most of the flight is darkness.  Solar energy would appear to be the ideal solution, but it’s still barely used in Africa. A Dutch organisation is planning to help change that. It is already providing solar energy to over 100,000 people in the continent.
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