Solar Cells Info

Reuters News / Houston, June 27, 2007

The Electric Power Research Institute said on Wednesday it will launch a project to study the feasibility of “concentrating” solar power to increase its efficiency at the request of a number of western U.S. electric utilities.

Unlike conventional flat-plate solar or photovoltaic panels, concentrating solar power uses reflectors to generate electricity more efficiently and in larger amounts, EPRI said in a release. The institute said the project will study the feasibility of building a solar power plant in the 50- to 500-megawatt range, much larger than traditional solar installations.
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Harrisburg, Pa., June 27, 2007
Source: United Press International -Energy briefing
http://www.upi.com/Energy/Briefing/2007/06/27/6313/

The Pennsylvania Legislature may soon increase its solar power mandate for utilities.  Lawmakers are working on legislative action that would mandate a 1,250 percent increase in the solar requirements provided by electric utilities over the next 15 years.  The proposed legislation is raising alarm bells for some in the energy sector. The estimated price tag for the additional requirement for power distribution companies could conservatively increase generation costs by $172 million and up to as much as $426 million, according to some industry analysts.
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by Andrew Leonard, June 29, 2007
Source: Salon.com
http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/06/28/german_solar/index.html

Call it a classic Silicon Valley globalization play. Signet Solar, a renewable energy startup headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., has already broken ground on a R&D facility in Dresden, Germany, and announced this month that it would it would build three manufacturing plants in India. By combining its own proprietary intellectual property with “thin solar” manufacturing equipment from Silicon Valley’s semiconductor tools giant, Applied Materials Inc., Signet hopes to grab market share by selling lower-cost photovoltaic panels for large industrial applications. (Thanks to The Indic View for the tip.)
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Algiers, 19 Jun 2007
Source: Reuters -Africa
http://africa.reuters.com/business/news/usnBAN923494.html

Algeria plans to make use of its hot southern desert to develop solar power for export and domestic consumption, the OPEC member country said on Monday.  The scheme is due to be completed by 2015 in Africa’s second-largest country, where most of the 33 million peopele live in the northern coastal strip. Temperatures in the desert south are high.
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By Nimfa Doroteo-Camua, June 24, 2007
Source: SunStar of Phillippines
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/dav/2007/06/24/bus/solar.power.for.communities.html

IS THERE money in solar energy for communities, service providers and micro finance institutions? Rural Power Project (RPP) Director Mylene Capongcol said the use of solar energy under the project is a cycle of benefits for families, communities, local government units, solar system providers and micro finance institutions (MFIs). (more…)

Sacramento, Calif., June, 15 2007.
SunTechnics Press Release
http://www.suntechnics.com/pmeldungen/ST_US_PerformanceGuarantee_070615.pdf

SunTechnics introduces an energy performance guarantee to ensure solar-system owners’ investment.  SunTechnics is offering commercial and residential solar power customers an energy performance guarantee that ensures optimal return on investment. This unique energy performance guarantee included in the final system price assures commercial and residential solar customers the specified kWh energy output for 10 years.  The SunTechnics performance guarantee is the only one in the industry offering monetary compensation regardless of system size and kind of
installation.

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Barcelona site to use solar energy for electricity generation, solar hot water for industrial processes
By Brad Kenney, June 15, 2007
Source: Industry Week
http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=14418&SectionID=2

Japanese automobile manufacturer Nissan Motor Co. will install 606 solar panels at its Barcelona vehicle plant by the end of this summer. The new initiative complements other programs either already in place at or planned for other Nissan facilities, including six wind turbines at its UK-based Sunderland plant and 732 panels slated for installation this summer at its light commercial vehicle plant in Avila, Spain.
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By Lester Haines, 8th June 2007
Source: Register.co.uk
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/08/rwandan_solar_plant/

Rwanda yesterday unveiled a 250-kilowatt solar plant which ups the nation’s ‘leccy-producing capacity to 50 megawatts, Reuters reports.  The German-backed project, said to be the largest in Africa, makes a modest contribution to the 100 megawatts the country needs “to meet soaring demand that has triggered regular blackouts”. Rwanda’s hydroelectric plants have struggled to cope, and many businesses get their juice from diesel generators.
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Mitsubishi Electric develops practical use Multi-crystalline Silicon Solar Cell with world’s highest conversion efficiency of 18%

Tokyo, May 31, 2007
Source: Mitsubishi Electric /press release
http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/bu/solar/products/pdf/PVe_0531.pdf

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (President and CEO: Setsuhiro Shimomura)
announced today its achievement of a world record (As of May 31, 2007) photoelectric conversion efficiency rate of 18.0% in a 150mm square practical use multi-crystalline silicon solar cell (Results from evaluation by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science And Technology (AIST), a public verification agency), an improvement of 1.2% over our previous models. We plan to present our technology at the Fukuoka 17th International
Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference in December 2007.
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Mumbai, 8 June 2007
Source: Domain-b.com
http://www.domain-b.com/economy/environment/20070608_european.html

Webel-Sl Energy Systems, which produces solar photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules in India, has formed a joint venture with a leading PV-cell manufacturing company in Europe to set up a production unit in West Bengal for solar cells and wafers.  Kolkata-based Webel started production about a decade ago by manufacturing 5-inch wafers with an installed capacity of 1 MW (megawatt) in technical collaboration with a European manufacturer.
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