Solar Cells Info

U.S. Department of Energy to Provide up to $2.4 Million to Advance Solar Energy in 12 U.S. Cities
Source: US Dept of Energy press release (more…)

DOE Selects 12 Solar America Cities to advance President Bush’s Solar America Initiative
Denver, CO, March 28, 2008
Source: US Dept of Energy press release
http://www.energy.gov/news/6099.htm

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel W. Bodman today announced that DOE will make available up to $2.4 million to 12 cities across the country selected as Solar America Cities, chosen for their commitment and comprehensive approach to the deployment of solar technologies and the development of sustainable solar infrastructures.  These projects further President Bush’s Solar America Initiative (SAI), which aims to make electricity from solar photovoltaics cost-competitive with conventional electricity by 2015.  Combined with industry cost share and funding from each city, total investment in all 12 cities is estimated at $12.1 million.  Secretary Bodman made the announcement while delivering keynote remarks at the New Frontiers in Energy Summit 2008 in Denver. (more…)

Littleton, CO, March 20, 2008
Source: United Press International (UPI)
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Industry/Briefing/
2008/03/20/air_force_contracts_for_solar_cell_tech/2538/

The U.S. Air Force says it has selected Colorado-based Ascent Solar Technologies Inc. to develop highly efficient solar cell technology. Ascent Solar, a designer of thin-film photovoltaic modules for solar cells, has received a phase II contract from the Air Force to research a way to achieve a 20 percent efficiency rate in flexible thin-film tandem solar cells. The Air Force Small Business Innovative Research initiative under the Office of the Secretary of Defense announced the deal potentially worth approximately $750,000. (more…)

German company Concentrix Solar has won an innovation award for its photovoltaic concentrator technology.
Source: EnvironmentalResearchWeb, Mar 13, 2008
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/futures/33333

Awarded by the Wirtschaftsclub Rhein-Main, an association of German companies, the prize recognizes the innovation of the company’s Flatcon technology. Concentrix claims the use of concentrator technology means cells achieve twice the efficiency when compared with conventional photovoltaics and gives cost savings of 10 to 20% for electric power production, depending on the location. (more…)

Source: NREL Press release / March 24, 2008
http://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2008/574.html

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory have moved closer to creating a thin-film solar cell that can compete with the efficiency of the more common silicon-based solar cell.  The copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cell recently reached 19.9 percent efficiency, setting a new world record for this type of cell. Multicrystalline silicon-based solar cells have shown efficiencies as high as 20.3 percent. The energy conversion efficiency of a solar cell is the percentage of sunlight converted by the cell into electricity.
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by Lisa Zyga/ March 27, 2008
Source: PhysOrg.com
http://www.physorg.com/news125842769.html

In the new solar cell design by MIT researchers more light can be captured increasing efficiency and decreasing cost per watt. Researchers from MIT have improved commercial solar cells that will soon be significantly cheaper and more efficient than those available today. Ely Sachs, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, predicts that by 2012 such solar cells will be comparable in price with coal, which is about $1 per watt.

Sachs and his colleagues have started a company called 1366 Technologies. With the help of a recent $12.4 million grant, the team is building a pilot-scale manufacturing plant to fabricate their first batch of solar cells. The cells currently have an efficiency of 19.5%, and cost about $1.65 per watt. That´s a 27% improvement in efficiency over similar commercial solar cells of today, which have about 15% efficiency and cost about $2.10 per watt.
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By Michael Berger, March 4, 2008
Source: Nanowerk Spotlight
http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=4798.php

Nanotechnology is already part of the process through which silicon-based photovoltaic solar cells – which make up some 95 percent of the solar cell market today – produce electricity. Nanotechnology is also the focus of research and development of a new generation of solar power technology that includes organic and inorganic solar cells derived from nanocrystals that can convert sunlight into electricity at a fraction of the cost of silicon solar cells. (more…)

BY Jon Van,  March 3, 2008
Source: Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/
chi-mon_notebook_0303mar03,1,6604444.story

Efforts by Northwestern University scientists to boost the efficiency of plastic-like flexible solar cells could make the technology commercially viable.  Researchers have demonstrated a 40 percent efficiency increase in organic photovoltaic cells and believe that with further work they can raise that output significantly. Flexible solar panels could be manufactured cheaply using technology similar to printing newspapers or the packaging used for potato chips, said Tobin J. Marks, an NU chemistry professor who co-leads the research team with Robert Chang, a materials science professor.
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By Lisa Zyga /March 07, 2008
Source: PhysOrg.com
http://www.physorg.com/news124111555.html

For the first time, researchers have created solar cells made of different-sized quantum dots, each tuned to a specific wavelength of light. By arranging these quantum dots in an ordered pattern, the scientists hope that they can one day fabricate “rainbow” solar cells, which can efficiently harvest a large part of the useful spectrum of sunlight.  The group of researchers from the University of Notre Dame, Anusorn Kongkanand, Kevin Tvrdy, Kensuke Takechi, Masaru Kuno, and Prashant Kamat, have published their study in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Their research was funded by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the Department of Energy. (more…)

University of Swansea working with metals giant Corus on photovoltaic solar cells that could be “painted” onto steel as it is manufactured
James Murray, BusinessGreen, 10 Mar 2008
Source: BusinessGreen.com
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/
2211621/welsh-boffins-investigate-sci

It might sound like something out of a science fiction film, but Welsh scientists claim to have developed a method for capturing solar energy using a new type of paint-like solar cells that could be applied to steel structures, raising the prospect of new buildings that generate usable energy from their external surfaces.

Researchers at the University of Swansea claim the breakthrough was made by an engineering doctorate student who was studying how sunlight degrades paint and found that it could prove possible to develop a type of paint that could exploit a new photovoltaic method of capturing solar energy.
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