Solar Cells Info

Shanghai, China Dec 18, 2007
Source: Solar EnerTech. Corp. press release
http://www.solarenertech.com/news/release.asp?numb=241

Solar EnerTech Corp. (OTCBB: SOEN) (the “Company”) today announced that it has entered into a sales contract with Sky Solar (Hong Kong) International Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Sky Global Group to distribute solar modules. Sky Global Group is a global distributor and system integrator of solar panels.  The total shipment to Sky Solar under the contract amounts to approximately US$21.8 million. Shipments, aimed for solar power installations in Spain, are scheduled to be delivered over a 5-month period beginning in December 2007, with the majority of solar module shipments scheduled for the Company’s 2008 fiscal second quarter.
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Rocky Hill, Conn., December 14, 2007
Source: Connecticut Clean Energy Fund /press release
http://www.ctinnovations.com/news/356.php

The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund (CCEF) Board today announced approval of a $1,180,000 grant to defray approximately half of the total cost of a 308-kilowatt DC solar photovoltaic (PV) system at The Lee Company’s Westbrook, Conn., Restrictor Group production facility. Upon completion, this system will be the largest solar photovoltaic system at a manufacturing facility in the state of Connecticut.
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Public-Private Partnership Makes Solar Practical, Enhances Energy Independence, and Reduces CO2 Emissions by 24,000 Tons per Year
Las Vegas, Nevada, Dec. 17, 2007
Source: SunPower Corp. press release
http://investors.sunpowercorp.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=281873

Today the U.S. Air Force celebrates the completion of North America’s largest solar photovoltaic system at Nellis Air Force Base. A joint project of the U.S. Air Force, MMA Renewable Ventures, LLC, a subsidiary of Municipal Mortgage & Equity, LLC (NYSE: MMA), SunPower Corporation (Nasdaq: SPWR), and Nevada Power Company, the 14 megawatt Nellis solar energy system will generate more than 30 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of clean electricity annually and supply approximately 25 percent of the total power used at the base, where 12,000 people live and work.
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by Daniel DeBolt, Mountain View Voice Staff
Source. MountainView Voice.com
http://www.mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=310

It’s been a blazing year for solar power in Mountain View, with residential solar installations tripling from 84 at the start of the year to 247 as of Dec. 12, according to the California Solar Initiative.  The number of residential solar installations for 2007 is larger than for any other city in the state, except San Jose and San Diego. The boom is in large part due to the efforts of a local solar buyers group, which earlier this year organized the bulk purchase of solar arrays for 118 homes. (more…)

New Delhi, Nov 30, 2007
Source: IANS /Yahoo India News
http://in.news.yahoo.com/071130/43/6nvsq.html

Roth and Rau, a Germany-based solar cell manufacturing solutions provider, sees India emerging as the fourth largest generator of solar energy and a key driver of its global business in the coming years. ‘Although still a small market, India is catching up fast with world majors in solar energy generation,’ Thomas Hengst, vice-president of Roth and Rau, said while speaking about his group’s plans for India in this clean energy source.
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Source: Daily Trust (Abuja) /AllAfrica.com
Misbahu Bashir, Abuja /5 December 2007
http://allafrica.com/stories/200712050712.html

The Federal Government is to set up megawatt class solar farms for the generation of electricity in the country. Minister of State for Energy (Power) Mrs. Fatima Balaraba Ibrahim gave the indication at the National Solar Energy Forum tagged ‘Harnessing Solar Energy for Rural Development’ in Abuja. She said the government would soon embark on studies towards implementing large scale megawatt class farms for integration into the national grid. “Government has recognised the benefits in solar energy and other renewable energy resources for rural development” she said.
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By Chen Qide, China Daily, Dec 11, 2007
Source: China Daily
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2007-12/11/content_6312458.htm

Nantong in northern Jiangsu Province is set to become one of China’s key thin-film amorphous silicon solar cell manufacturing bases after Nantong Qiangsheng Photovoltaic Technology Co Ltd (QS Solar) announced it had launched a $400 million project.  A senior company manager said yesterday that the project, China’s largest of its kind, will be carried out in three phases within three years. The first phase, which consists of three sets of 25 MW production facilities, will see the first set put into operation by mid-January of 2008, Sha Xiaolin, chairman of QS Solar, said.
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Rodney Chan, Taipei, 12 December 2007
Source: DigiTimes
http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20071212VL202.html

The partnership with equipment supplier Oerlikon is expected to shorten the time thin-film solar cell maker Sunwell Technology will need to begin mass production and to raise yields, according to Robert Wong, chairman of CMC Magnetics, the parent company of the Taiwan-based solar cell maker.  Wong noted that Oerlikon, which supplies Sunwell’s production equipment, has already had experience in mass production for solar cells.  A ceremony was held on December 10 to mark the completion of Sunwell’s solar cell plant in Linkou, northern Taiwan. Sunwell will supply solar cells as well as building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV).
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By Richard Dobson /Additional reporting by Baker Li
Taipei, Dec 6, 2007
Source: Reuters UK
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKTP33777420071206

Soaring oil prices approaching $100 a barrel are fueling a sleek new kind of solar technology that could some day set skyscrapers and high-rise apartment windows quietly buzzing with renewable energy production.  The emerging technology uses thin films mounted on the glass windows of skyscrapers and other surfaces to harness the sun’s power.  It’s more aesthetic and cheaper than the bulkier conventional solar cells made from polycrystalline silicon whose supplies have tightened and prices have risen as solar energy has taken off.
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Toyko, Dec. 15, 2007
Source: Reuters/Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu, editing by Jacqueline Wong
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUST13412120071215

Sharp Corp will spend close to 100 billion yen ($882.9 million) to build the world’s largest solar cell factory in Japan, Chairman Katsuhiko Machida was quoted by the Nikkei business daily as saying.  The plant will be built next to Sharp’s LCD panel factory currently under construction in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.

It will produce thin-film solar cells, which use less silicon than conventional cells, starting in fiscal 2009, the Nikkei said in its Saturday edition.  The factory is expected to have a production capacity of 1,000 megawatts per year, the largest in the world. The Osaka-based company has an annual output capacity of 710 megawatts.

Sharp first announced plans to build the plant back in July, but had not outlined the investment amount.