Solar Cells Info

By Joanne Ray, February 11, 2008
New England Construction Used to harness energy in Hingham, Mass., School.
Source: ACP Construction Data
http://www.acppubs.com/article/CA6529306.html

Exciting news hits Hingham, Mass., when middle school science teacher Andrea Stuart finds a simple way to introduce solar power to her students.   According to an article published in the Boston Globe on December 30, 2007, Stuart made a new discovery as she was playing around with software that collects data from the high school’s new solar voltaic roof panels.
(more…)

08 Feb 2008
Source: Pink Tentacle.com
http://www.pinktentacle.com/2008/02/jaxa-testing-space-solar-power-system/
Hokkaido Shimbun /http://www.hokkaido-np.co.jp/news/environment/74756.html

For decades, scientists have explored the possibility of using space-based solar cells to power the Earth. Some see orbiting power stations as a clean and stable energy source that promises to slow global warming, while others dismiss the idea as an expensive and impractical solution to the world’s energy problems. While the discussion goes on, researchers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have begun to develop the hardware.
(more…)

By Maggie Ayre, BBC Radio 4 /Costing the Earth/7 February 2008
Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7232328.stm

Even in grey, overcast Britain, some householders are managing to use solar power to meet their energy needs.  But there are far more ambitious plans for Europe to import solar power from huge installations in North Africa.
(more…)

Posted by Keith Johnson
Guy Chazan reports, February 7, 2008
Source: The Wall Streets Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/02/07/
siberia-solar-powers-next-heartland/?mod=googlenews_wsj

Nitol Solar wants to become one of the world’s biggest producers of high-purity silicon, the main ingredient of solar cells. That’s pretty ambitious, considering it only started making tiny amounts of the stuff last month.  But these are strange times. Nitol is selling 25-30% of its equity in an IPO in London next week and its advisers say it’ll have no trouble raising $250-300 million. That would give the company a total market cap of as much as $750 million. Not bad for an outfit whose main asset is a Cold War-era chemical plant in the depths of Siberia.
(more…)

Posted : by DPA
Hamburg, Germany, 04 Feb 2008
Source: EarthTimes.org
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/
182372,carbon-electrodes-could-slash-cost-of-solar-panels.html

These electrodes are usually made from indium tin oxide (ITO) but experts calculate that there is only 10 years’ worth of indium left on the planet, with LCD panels consuming the majority of existing stocks.   “There is not enough indium on earth for the future development of devices using it,” Linjie Zhi of the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany, told New Scientist. “It is also not very stable, so you have to be careful during the fabrication process.”
(more…)

Mark LaPedus, EE Times,
San Jose, CA, Jan 28, 2008
Source: EETimes.com
http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=205920095

Amid a major expansion program, Global Solar Energy Inc. (GSE) claims to have achieved a breakthrough for solar cells based on copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film technology.  GSE (Tucson, Ariz.) said that its CIGS-based, thin-film cells have achieved an average of 10 percent efficiency “on a flexible, lightweight substrate over several production runs.” Starting in 2007, the company’s solar cells achieved an average efficiency of about 9 percent.
(more…)

By Tyler Hamilton, February 06, 2008
Source:MIT Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/Nanotech/20163/

Researchers at McMaster University, in Ontario, say that they have grown light-absorbing nanowires made of high-performance photovoltaic materials on thin but highly durable carbon-nanotube fabric. They’ve also harvested similar nanowires from reusable substrates and embedded the tiny particles in flexible polyester film. Both approaches, they argue, could lead to solar cells that are both flexible and cheaper than today’s photovoltaics.
(more…)

Source:  Fraunhofer ISE & Solarserver.de /17 Jan 2008
http://www.solarserver.de/solarmagazin/news-e.html#news107

A maximum efficiency rating of 98.5 percent for photovoltaic inverters has been achieved by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE in a test using prototype silicon carbide-based MOSFETs manufactured by CREE, Inc., USA. These are the highest efficiency results reported for photovoltaic inverters to date, ISE reports in a press release. (more…)

A huge increase in contracts to supply the grid means the province may soon be home to some of the planet’s biggest arrays

by Richard Blackwell, Globe and Mail Update / January 22, 2008
source:GlobeandMail.com
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080122.wrsolar22/BNStory/

Ontario is on its way to becoming a major centre for solar power, and will soon see thousands of solar panels spread out over acres of land, feeding clean power into the power grid.  Year-end numbers show an explosion of interest in building solar generating systems, from individuals who want to put a few panels on their roof, to businesses investing in huge solar farms.
(more…)

by Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media,
Source: Semiconductor International, Jan 15, 2008
http://www1.semiconductor.net/article/CA6522776.html

Braggone (Oulu, Finland), which develops advanced materials for semiconductor and optoelectronics applications, has signed a joint-development agreement with equipment supplier Beneq (Vantaa, Finland) to offer a turnkey solution for improving the manufacturing efficiency and product performance of solar cells.  Braggone’s innovative antireflective coatings and silicon treatments have been able to significantly reduce reflective properties. Taking this solution from the semiconductor industry to photovoltaics has enabled solar glass reflectivity to be cut from 9.2% to 1.8%, for example, which translates into more of the sun’s energy being captured within the panels.
(more…)