Solar Cells Info

By David Louie, June 1, 2007
Copyright 2007, ABC7/KGO-TV/DT.
Source:  ABC Local news KGO-TV
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=business&id=5360706

The next dream for many high-tech leaders is to see Silicon Valley turn into a serious center for solar energy technology. But, it is easier said than done as attendees learned at a conference in the valley today.  In a room at San Jose’s Cypress Semiconductor may be the next Steve Jobs, David Packard or Bill Hewlett. Instead of computers, their focus will be on solar technology.
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By Todd Woody, Business 2.0 Magazine assistant managing editor, June 5 2007
Source: Business 2.0 Magazine /money.cnn.com
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/

This is not the same old pipe dream. The economics — and the technology — of turning light into electricity have changed. Business 2.0 has the inside look at the industrial-strength power plants coming soon to a grid near you.

Clouds hang low over the New Mexico desert, deep inside a military reservation a dozen miles south of Albuquerque. A breeze stirs the air; tumbleweeds roll by. Then the sun shines through and a low whirring sound breaks the silence.  Six mirrored solar dishes that look like giant flowers with 15-foot stamens come to life. They pivot in unison, slowly tilting to face the sun rising over the jagged peaks of the Manzano ranges. A total of 468 mirrors — 78 on each flower –capture the sun’s rays and concentrate them into beams of light intense enough to melt lead. (more…)

June 5, 2007
Source: Theage.com.au
www.theage.com.au/news/1180809472909.html

Three time winners the Nuon Solar Team heads up the list of entries for this year’s World Solar Challenge from Darwin to Adelaide.  The Dutch team won the biennial solar car race across Australia in 2001, 2003 and 2005 and is favoured to take out a fourth victory in October this year.  Chasing it all the way to Adelaide will be the Victorian-based team from the Aurora Vehicle Association which won the race in 1999 and then finished second to Nuon in the last three events.
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Europe’s largest trade fair for solar technology (June 21-23, 2007 at Freiburg im Breisgau) is already fully booked
Pforzheim, 19 April 2007
Source: Inter Solar 2007 / press release
http://www.intersolar.de/61+M5830d7b7262.html

As in previous years, the international trade fair Intersolar 2007 reflects the dynamically growing solar technology industry in Europe. After the tremendous growth of the last few years, this year has once again seen the leading trade fair achieve record growth. Compared with last year, the number of exhibitors is up from 454 to 560, while the exhibition space has been increased from 26,000 square metres to 31,000 square metres. At the same time, Intersolar is further consolidating its position as the leading European platform for solar technology. In 2006, the proportion of international exhibitors was 30%. This year, 37 % of exhibitors will be travelling to Freiburg from over 30 countries.
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Source: InterSolar.de
http://www.intersolar.de/2+M5074dbdb453.html

The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) expects new photovoltaic systems to be installed per year with a volume of 5,600 Megawatt peak from 2010 on. In 2006, the market volume was 1.362 Megawatt peak. The international photovoltaic industry will be discussing this ongoing dynamic development and other current issues at the 3rd PV Industry Forum. The industry-focussed conference will be communicating the latest trends of the international photovoltaic markets as well as key technical issues. The 3rd PV Industry Forum is supported by the German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar) and the German Energy Agency GmbH (dena), and will take place in the run-up to Intersolar, Europe’s largest solar technology fair, on the 20th of June 2007 in Freiburg, Germany.
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Cologne, Germany & Yokohama, Japan, May 25, 2007
Source. PR Newswire
http://sev.prnewswire.com/environmental-services/20070525/3419691en-1.html

Around 70 percent of all solar module manufacturers have their products tested for durability and energy efficiency at the TUV Rheinland Group’s Cologne laboratory. As world market leader in this dynamic growth sector, the global service provider for quality and safety will invest just under 3.5 million euros in the further development and expansion of new laboratory capacities in Asia by the end of 2008. Professor Dr.-Ing. Bruno O. Braun, President and CEO of the TUV Rheinland Group, announced these plans at the opening of the newly expanded Global Technology Assessment Center (GTAC) in Yokohama, Japan. (more…)

UPI Energy, May 23, 2007
Source: Semiconductor International
http://www.reed-electronics.com/semiconductor/articleXml/LN616914141.html

What was once garbage for Richardson, Texas-based Texas Instruments has now turned into a multimillion-dollar revenue source.  A new program for Texas Instrument’s silicon scraps are redefining the once worthless excess and are feeding solar industry’s growing appetite. The chipmaker historically had sold its scrap silicon wafers — the wafers that, for one reason or another, can’t be used to produce chips — at garage-sale-like events near its Richardson headquarters. A 55-gallon drum of old wafers might previously have gone to a local hobbyist for $100 or so, according to Mike Hayden, the silicon procurement engineering manager at Texas Instruments, Cnet News.com reported.
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by Craig Whitlock, Washington Post Service
Espenhain, Germany, May 21, 2007
Source: Miami Herald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/154/story/111713.html

When it opened here in 2004 on a reclaimed mining dump, the Geosol solar plant was the biggest of its kind in the world. It is so clean and green that it produces zero emissions and so easy to operate that it has only three regular workers: plant manager Hans-Joerg Koch and his security guards, sheepdogs named Pushkin and Adi.  The plant is part of a building boom that has made gloomy-skied Germany the unlikely global leader in solar-generated electricity. Last year, about half of the world’s solar electricity was produced in the country. Of the 20 biggest photovoltaic plants, 15 are in Germany, even though it has only half as many sunny days as countries such as Portugal.
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Kassel/Niestetal, 14 May 2007
Source: SMA Technologie AG /press release
http://www2.sma.de/en/news-detail/article/942/

By the year 2009, SMA will supply all the system technology for a solar power system near Leipzig, Germany, which is to have a capacity of 36 MW

SMA Technologie AG has accepted the largest single order it has ever received for central inverters. Between April 2007 and August 2008, the company plans to deliver 42 Sunny Centrals, each with a capacity of 500 kW, to juwi solar GmbH, which is managing the installation. Delivery of another 30 units is scheduled for 2009. In addition, the order includes all solar data systems technology necessary for Internet-based system monitoring. The solar power plant, built on an unused former military airfield near Brandis, not far from Leipzig, is at present the largest photovoltaic system in the world, promising CO2 savings of approximately 25,000 tons per year.
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The world’s largest solar power plant is only the latest addition to Germany’s investment in alternative power, Michael Dumiak reports for Fortune.
By Michael Dumiak, FORTUNE Magazine, May 22 2007
Source: CNNMoney.com
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100049624/
The former East Germany, once one of the world’s gloomiest places, has become home to one of the world’s brightest industries: solar power. In late April ground was broken at a former Soviet air base near Leipzig for a $176 million, 40-megawatt photo-voltaic power plant, four times the size of the largest existing solar plant in the world. The facility, being built by Germany’s Juwi International, is scheduled to begin production in late 2009. When it does, it will add significant capacity to eastern Germany’s mushrooming solar power industry.
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