Solar Cells Info

by Martin LaMonica, Jan 14, 2009
Source: GreenTech
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10142451-54.html

Imagine a manufacturer that took back its products after 25 years of use.  That’s exactly what watchdog group Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition is recommending that the solar industry do in a white paper released on Wednesday.   Solar is a renewable source of energy, and solar panels don’t pollute when they are generating electricity. But the upstream process of making solar panels involves a number of toxic chemicals.  Most solar cells are made out of silicon, the same material embedded in billions of electronic chips. As a result, the burgeoning solar photovoltaics (PV) industry faces an electronic-waste problem. (more…)

Source: Frauenhofer Inst. for Solar Energy Systems, press release, 14 Jan 2009
http://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/press-and-media/press-releases/
press-releases-2009/world-record-41.1-efficiency-reached-for-multi-junction-solar-cells-at-fraunhofer-ise/view

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE have achieved a record efficiency of 41.1% for the conversion of sunlight into electricity. Sunlight is concentrated by a factor of 454 and focused onto a small 5 mm² multi-junction solar cell made out of GaInP/GaInAs/ Ge (gallium indium phosphide, gallium indium arsenide on a germanium substrate).  “We are elated by this breakthrough,” says Frank Dimroth, head of the group “III-V – Epitaxy and Solar Cells” at Fraunhofer ISE. “At all times the entire team believed in our concept of the metamorphic triple-junction solar cells and our success today is made possible only through their committed work over the past years.” (more…)

Source: ScienceDaily, Jan. 18, 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090115164518.htm

Inexpensive solar cells, vastly improved medical imaging techniques and lighter and more flexible television screens are among the potential applications envisioned for organic electronics.  Recent experiments conducted by Greg Scholes and Elisabetta Collini of University of Toronto’s Department of Chemistry may bring these within closer reach thanks to new insights into the way molecules absorb and move energy. Their findings will be published in the journal Science on January 16. (more…)

Solar Photovoltaic Cell Market Report – 2008 Edition (Koncept Analytics)
Published Date: 01/12/2008

Summary: High oil and gas prices and improving regulatory support for solar power are driving solar photovoltaic (PV) cell market. Other drivers include increasing popularity of “green” energy, rising electricity costs and emergence of more efficient solar PV technologies. (more…)

by Martin LaMonica, Jan 5, 2009
Source: CNet News
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10131614-54.html

Toshiba, a company best known for making laptops and consumer electronics, on Monday said that it will enter the solar-photovoltaics business.  But don’t expect to see Toshiba-branded solar panels on a home rooftop any time soon. The company’s industrial and energy arm plans to build utility-scale solar power plants.  Toshiba’s photovoltaics business will be part of the conglomerate’s Transmission Distribution & Industrial Systems business, which makes equipment for natural-gas power plants. (more…)

The company may begin with supplying equipment, and move on to energy production.
by Lior Baron, 6 Jan 09
Source: GlobesOnline
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/
DocView.asp?did=1000413992&fid=1725

Sources inform ”Globes” that German industrial giant Robert Bosch GmbH is considering entering Israel’s solar power industry. The sources added that Bosch executives recently visited Israel and met Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and other officials, including executives of solar energy companies.  Bosch is initially interested in supplying equipment and installing thermal and photovoltaic panels at companies and households. Industry sources believe that Bosch may later build solar power projects, possibly as part of a consortium with Israeli companies. (more…)

By Paulo Nery, January 06, 2009
Source: RenewableEnergyStocks.com
http://renewableenergystocks.com/Companies/
ViewDocument.asp?ID=5697

The solar photovoltaic (PV) industry is clearly in a rapid growth phase. The worldwide industry size was recently estimated at $50 billion. Over the past few years, production capacity is thought to have grown at an average of 48% each year and cumulative global production is now at 12.4 Giga Watts (GW). It is also an industry on the brink of change. New technologies are emerging that seem certain have an impact on the entire shape of the PV industry. (more…)

by Yuri Kageyama, Tokyo, Dec 31, 2008
Source: Associated Press
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/
ALeqM5j6YAsF3SOqHlP0vYQgSsJ8YaR9LgD95E6O680

Toyota Motor Corp. is secretly developing a vehicle that will be powered solely by solar energy in an effort to turn around its struggling business with a futuristic ecological car, a top business daily reported Thursday.  The Nikkei newspaper, however, said it will be years before the planned vehicle will be available on the market. Toyota’s offices were closed Thursday and officials were not immediately available for comment. (more…)

By Nichola Groom, Los Angeles, Dec 18, 2008
Source: Reuters/Guardian UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8165544

As dismal as 2008 has been for solar stocks, next year doesn’t look any brighter.  Funding for solar projects and factory expansions remains scarce, prices on panels are falling faster than expected as supplies jump, and a dramatic drop in oil prices has tempered investor appetite for renewable energy stocks.  There is palpable optimism, however, that the new U.S. presidential administration will move rapidly on legislation to boost demand for alternative energy sources. Still, it remains to be seen how quickly that would get done and what form it will take.  “It will be a tumultuous year for most solar companies,” said Karina Funk, an analyst with Winslow Green Funds in Boston. (more…)

by Energy Matters, Australia
Source:
http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=255

A recent report from the European Union’s Joint Research Center Institute for Energy  shows continued massive increases in the annual growth rate of global solar cell production. Growth in production averaged 40% over five years ; peaking at 60% in 2007 when solar cell production reached 4 GWp. The solar panel sector has become an AUD $28.5 billion a year business and is expect to grow to AUD $85.5 billion in 2010, while still seeing price drops on solar panels for end consumers.  Sharp Corporation is now the number one solar cell manufacturer followed by Q-cells and Suntech. The market share of the ten largest solar cell manufacturers has eroded from 80% in 2004 to 57% in 2007 due to an increasing number of companies entering the solar cell production market, predominantly in China and Taiwan. (more…)