Solar Cells Info

by Tyler Hamilton, Dec 22, 2008
Source: Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/557162

Most homeowners, it’s safe to assume, would seriously consider putting solar panels on their rooftops if it was economical and didn’t involve a massive upfront payment. As the kids might say on the drive to the cottage, are we there yet? Not quite – but we’re heading in the right direction. Ontario refunds the provincial sales tax on solar photovoltaic, or PV, equipment and under its standard offer program will pay 42 cents per kilowatt-hour if you want to feed your home-generated solar power into the grid. (more…)

Source: Northern California Solar Energy Association
http://www.norcalsolar.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=86&Itemid=154

1.  Preface

The following Bay Area Solar Installations Report is another educational effort put forth by the Northern California Solar Energy Association (NorCal Solar) towards its mission: To foster the development and application of solar energy technology through the exchange of information.

Since 1975 NorCal Solar, then known as NCSEA, has promoted solar education and fostered the exchange of information through many venues.  Today, from our website www.norcalsolar.org where we maintain a world-wide electronic ‘portal’ of resources on solar and other renewable energy technologies to our Solar Energy Resource Guide, a publication sold locally while supporting independent reports, studies and classrooms as well as many consumer information and workshops in-between.  This year NorCal Solar was a co-organizer of the American Solar Energy Association’s conference, Solar 2008, in San Diego where NorCal helped to organize more than 70 consumer workshops.  NorCal Solar also participated in the conference committee of the first ever InterSolar Conference in North America.  This conference was held in San Francisco where 13,000 visitors received the latest information about the advances of the international solar industry.  This was an amazing experience to learn about the reaches of solar into the international markets.

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by Chris Morrison, November 26, 2008
Source: VentureBeat.com/CleanTech
http://venturebeat.com/2008/11/26/optony-shooting-for-a-leap-in-thin-film-solar-efficiency/

A common idea for making solar cells more effective is to concentrate sunlight on them with lenses and mirrors. But for thin-film solar, which is made up of cheaper materials than typical silicon-based photovoltaic cells, these focusing techniques are hardly mentioned. Optony hopes it can bridge this gap with a new technology. (more…)

SolFocus 1100S slated for medium- to utility-scale installations
Mountain View, Calif., November 13, 2008
Source: SolFocus.com press release
http://www.solfocus.com/news_file/20081113075827_sf-pr-sf1100-fin-111108.pdf

SolFocus today announced its latest Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) solution – the SolFocus 1100S. This new CPV system achieves panel efficiencies of 25% resulting in systems which produce the highest energy density and highest energy yield of photovoltaic systems available today. SolFocus customer EMPE Solar will deploy the SolFocus 1100S in its recently announced 10 megawatt utility-scale project, expected to be the largest deployment of CPV technology in Europe. (more…)

by Yoichiro Hata, EE Times, Tokyo, 07 Nov 2008
Source: EETimes.com
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212001306

In a dramatic restructuring within the Japanese consumer electronics industry, Panasonic Corp. and Sanyo Electric Co. have entered into takeover discussions that would result in Sanyo becoming a Panasonic subsidiary, Panasonic president Fumio Ohtsubo confirmed Friday (Nov. 7).  The pending deal is not focused on either company’s traditional product lines but rather on solar cells and rechargeable batteries for hybrid and electric cars.
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By Matthew Knight, For CNN, London, Nov.12, 2008
Source: CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/11/12/solar.coating/

Researchers have developed a new anti-reflective coating that boosts the efficiency of solar panels and allows sunlight to be absorbed from almost any angle.  Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute researchers say they’ve made advances in absorption of sunlight.  Scientists from the Future Chips Constellation (FCC) at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York have created the coating using nanotechnology — engineering devices on a molecular scale. (more…)

Source: EU Research Info. Center / 20 Nov 2008
http://ec.europa.eu/research/infocentre/article_en.cfm?
id=/research/headlines/news/article_08_11_20_en.html&item=Infocentre&artid=9033

Researchers at the Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) announced that they have succeeded in improving the efficiency of solar cells, which are designed to convert available light into electricity. The quantum electronic phenomenon called the photovoltaic (PV) effect makes this possible. The team said the effectiveness of III-V semiconductor multi-junction solar cells, used in PV concentrator technology for solar power stations, has been increased by 2.1% to 39.7% — a new European record. The work, which is funded to the tune of EUR 8.34 million, is part of the EU project FULLSPECTRUM. (more…)

Asia Pulse/LexisNexis, November 26, 2008
Source: Semiconductor.net
http://www.semiconductor.net/articleXml/LN890291678.html

Japan’s Sustainable Titania Technology Inc. (STi) has developed a way to boost the energy conversion efficiency of thin-film solar cells by about 20 per cent.  The process involves fabricating a highly reflective film on the backside of the electricity-generating layer of the solar cell so that less light is lost.
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by Motonobu Kawai, Nikkei Microdevices, Nov 28, 2008
Source: TechOn
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20081128/162005/

Sharp announced that it will start full-scale mass production of its crystalline Si solar cells with a cell conversion efficiency of 20% in 2010.  “It is going to be more powerful than any other residential crystalline silicon solar cell,” said Toshishige Hamano, executive vice president of Sharp Corp.
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By Julie Steenhuysen, Chicago, Nov 6, 2008
Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4A583S20081106

Researchers have developed some of the tiniest solar cells ever made and said on Thursday the organic material could potentially be painted on to surfaces.  So far, they have managed to pull 11 volts of electricity from a small array of the cells, which are each just a quarter of the size of a grain of white rice, said Xiaomei Jiang of the University of South Florida, who led the research.
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