Solar Cells Info

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
By John J. Fialka, The Wall Street Journal
Article published in post-gazette.com
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06332/741837-28.stm

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Stanford R. Ovshinsky has spent 40 years — and millions of dollars in backing from various partners — pursuing his dream. He wanted to build a huge machine that would make giant sheets of material that can generate solar power. “I said we are going to make it by the mile,” he recalls. “Nobody believed me, not even in my own company.”

Today, Mr. Ovshinsky, 84 years old, finds himself running his factory at full capacity and overwhelmed with orders. His company, Energy Conversion Devices Inc., is the largest U.S.-owned maker of photovoltaic materials, which convert sunlight to electricity. The company is a pioneer in an exploding global industry selling $15 billion a year of what’s called “PV.” The company’s mammoth machine extends the length of a football field. It runs much like a printing press, spooling out thin sheets of the PV material, which can be used on roofs of homes or businesses. As energy costs rise, along with concerns about global warming, PV is in demand.

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Opening of the first German-Korean research training group
Optoelectronics initiative links basic research and practical application

source:  www.dfg.de
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/df-oot103106.php

On 2 November 2006 the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) will open the International Research Training Group “Self-organised Materials for Optoelectronics.” Scientists from the University of Mainz, Seoul National University and Hannam University will collaborate on this initiative, bringing together basic research and practical applications at an internationally high level. Doctoral students will have the opportunity not only to work on their doctorates in an excellent research environment, under the joint supervision of German and Korean scientists, but also to gain experience in both countries. A Memorandum of Understanding between the DFG and KOSEF in September 2005 provided the basis for the establishment of the Research Training Group.

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Source: Yahoo business news
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061108/lnw010.html?.v=2

WUXI, China, Nov. 8, 2006

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP – News), one of the world’s leading manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, announced today that Dr. Zhengrong Shi, Suntech’s Chairman and CEO, has established the China Solar Photovoltaic Suntech Prize to honor engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs and government officials who have made substantial contributions to the development of China’s PV industry.

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Octillion Announces Development Plan For New Solar To Electricity Glass Windows (NanoPowerWindows)
New nanosilicon photovoltaic solar cell technology could adapt home and office glass windows into ones capable of generating electricity from sunlight without losing significant transparency or requiring major changes in manufacturing infrastructure.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)  November 28, 2006
Source: businesswire.com press release

Octillion Corp. (OTC:OCTL) is pleased to announce that its research and development initiatives are well under way for the development of a new patent-pending technology using nanosilicon photovoltaic solar cells that have the potential to convert normal home and office glass windows into ones capable of converting solar energy into electricity. These nanosilicon photovoltaic solar cells are created through a unique electrochemical and ultrasound process that produces identically sized (1 to 4 nanometers in diameter) highly luminescent nanoparticles of silicon that provide varying wavelengths of photoluminescence with high quantum down conversion efficiency of short wavelengths (50% to 60%). The process of producing these silicon nanoparticles is supported by 10 issued US patents, 7 pending US patents, 2 issued foreign counterpart patents and 19 pending foreign counterpart patents.

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Source: : Lewiston Tribune, http://www.lmtribune.com

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) Nov. 26, 2006

– A University of Idaho professor is devising a new form of solar cell she says could lead to a breakthrough that would make solar energy commercially feasible. Chemist Pam Shapiro, her graduate students and her colleagues at the university are working on creating better materials and combining them in new ways that could more than double the efficiency of present solar cells. If successful, she said the new technology could help the U.S. break its oil dependency.
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Sharp Corp will introduce two new thin-film solar (photovoltaic) modules with better temperature characteristics intended for commercial/industrial applications.

November 20, 2006
source: Nikkei Electronics Asia
http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/dailynewsdetail/005692

Market demand in this area will be growing significantly in the future, and the new model NA-902WP is intended for industrial/commercial use in the Japanese market, while the NA-901WP is targeted at international markets. The NA-901WP and NA-902WP are high-output models, delivering 90W of power. The adoption of an amorphous/microcrystalline thin-film tandem cell design, which uses stacked layers of amorphous silicon and microcrystalline silicon achieves a conversion efficiency of 8.5% (40% higher than conventional amorphous solar cells), among the industry’s highest levels for thin-film silicon-based solar cells currently in volume production.

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Sunday | November 5, 2006
Source: Jamaica-gleaner.com
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20061105/auto/auto6.html

The new VW samba bus is based on the classic version of the first VW Transporter from 1950, but the similarities are only skin-deep. Over 15 innovative ideas have been realised in the bus, which has been named ‘Chameleon’.

At Volkswagen’s Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) in Palo Alto, California, you can currently take a look into the future. The packaging is a familiar face from the ’60s: the Samba-Bus. But although the bus is based on the classic version of the first VW Transporter from 1950, the similarities are only skin-deep. On the inside it features values going far into the future. America had a particular attachment to the Samba-Bus, or the ’21 Window Bus’ as it was affectionately known there. In its time it touched a whole new generation of Americans. Especially in California, it was the bus that symbolised the motorisation of young Americans, freedom and a new taste for life.
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Article by Bruce Morey
Source:  Solarforecast.com
http://www.solarforecast.com/ArticleDetails.php?articleID=322

With the on-going shortage of silicon feedstock on the minds of many in the solar PV industry, it is natural to seek an alternative to creating solar cells that use silicon based products. CIGS solar cells, sometimes referred to as CIS, are made from Copper, Indium, Gallium and Selenium and have been under development for some time. Most notably, they do not contain any silicon. If current announced plans are achieved, this technology should be able to deliver solar modules in production quantities in 2007. The steps to production have included manufacturing ramp-up and the work needed for market introduction.
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Tue Nov 14, 2006 11:33am ET30
Source: Reuter News
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?
type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-11-14T163256Z_01_L14702690_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENERGY-SOLAR.xml&src=rss

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A European consortium has improved the efficiency of silicon solar cells, hoping to reduce the cost of generating solar power, the Dutch energy research center ECN said on Tuesday. “Researchers increased the conversion (from sunlight to electricity) efficiency of large-area multicrystalline silicon solar cells to a record value of 18 percent,” ECN said in a statement.

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Lighting up the $1 trillion power market

Silicon Valley has changed the world once. Now, thanks to a wave of investment and innovation in solar power, it’s on to the next revolution: a massive disruption of the U.S. electricity market.

By Tom McNichol and Michael V. Copeland,
Business 2.0 Magazine October 30 2006
Source; CNNMoney.com
http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/26/magazines/business2/solar_siliconvalley.biz2/?postversion=2006102610

There’s a missile-bunker vibe you get when walking into Solaicx, a Silicon Valley startup that manufactures the silicon wafers that are the building blocks of solar panels.

In one half of the nondescript Santa Clara warehouse, three men sit hunched on a wood platform 8 feet above the cement floor, their eyes locked on two monitors. The screens show data and video gathered from a 24-foot-tall steel tower. The tower begins in a squat, gourd-shaped base and tapers to a cannon-size column with a long drum spinning slowly on top. Thick power cables snake down its sides. Another sci-fi-looking tower rises up off to one side of the building.

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