Solar Cells Info

* Completes First Polysilicon Production Run
* Celebrates 15 Million Safe Work Hours for 15,000 MT Polysilicon Plant
XINYU CITY, China and SUNNYVALE, Calif.,January 16, 2009
Source: LDK Solar Co. Ltd press release
http://www.ldksolar.com/Press%20Release.html

LDK Solar Co., Ltd., a manufacturer of multicrystalline solar wafers, today announced that a ceremony was held to recognize important company milestones that were reached in early January.  LDK Solar has continued to make significant progress with the construction of its polysilicon plants and is pleased to announce that the 1,000 metric ton (MT) annualized capacity polysilicon plant recently completed its first successful polysilicon production run. The company also announced that it has achieved a major milestone on the 15,000 MT annualized capacity polysilicon plant by completing 15 million safe work hours. (more…)

Source: CompoundSemiconductor.net / Jan 15, 2009
http://compoundsemiconductor.net/cws/article/lab/37358

An ambitious European project is expected to result in both a new material deposition system and higher-efficiency solar cells for concentrating photovoltaics.  Novel metal-organic sources of germanium and silicon could hold the key to a new generation of multi-junction solar cells, and ultimately to much cheaper solar energy production in sunny climates.  Researchers leading the European drive towards commercialization of concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) systems believe that growing germanium epilayers in these cells will represent a crucial step in the development of the technology. (more…)

Roth & Rau AG and Innovalight complete installation of world’s first silicon-ink based solar cell pilot production
Hohenstein-Ernstthal, 14 January 2009
Source: Roth & Rau AG press release  http://www.roth-rau.de/

Roth & Rau AG and Innovalight have completed the installation of the world’s first silicon-ink based solar cell production line. This first pilot manufacturing line has been built and installed at Innovalight, in Sunnyvale, California and has been qualified to operational capability over the last two months of 2008. (more…)

Source: UK Trade & Investment services, 18 Jan 2009
http://www.ukinvest.gov.uk/OurWorld/4041467/en-GB.html

New-generation nanotechnology solar cells are being developed at Surrey University for German energy giant E.ON.  The university’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) has received 1 million euro (£0.9 million) to research energy production, conversion and storage.  A key focus will be organic alternatives to mainstream silicon-based cells, which while being relatively efficient are expensive and difficult to make. (more…)

Booth display at the 2009 International Builders’ Show® in Las Vegas Convention Center (booth #C7759)
Frisco, TX,  January 15, 2009
Source: Sanyo Energy (USA) press release
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/partner/story?cid=3066&id=54511

SANYO Energy (U.S.A.) Corporation, a subsidiary of SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. (SANYO), will display its advanced HIT. Double solar panels at The New American Home® 2009, while participating in the 2009 International Builders’ Show® (IBS), from January 20 – 23, 2009 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, booth #C7759. *HIT® stands for Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer. HIT® solar cells developed by SANYO are hybrid solar cells composed of single crystalline silicon wafer surrounded by ultra-thin amorphous silicon layers. (more…)

By Anne Ju, Jan. 8, 2009
Source: Cornell Univ. press release
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan09/NanotubeInk.html

Using a simple chemical process, scientists at Cornell and DuPont have invented a method of preparing carbon nanotubes for suspension in a semiconducting “ink,” which can then be printed into such thin, flexible electronics as transistors and photovoltaic materials.  The method, which involves treating carbon nanotubes with fluorine-based molecules, is reported in the Jan. 9 issue of the journal Science (Vol. 323 No. 234). (more…)

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…)

by Martyn Williams, IDG News Service, Jan 18, 2009
Source: PC World.com
http://www.pcworld.com/article/157924/
lg_to_sign_340m_solar_wafer_deal_with_norways_rec.html

South Korea’s LG Electronics will sign a five-year deal this week to buy silicon wafers for solar panels from Norway’s REC Wafer, it said Sunday. The contract, which will be signed on Thursday in Seoul, is worth at least US$340 million and supply will begin in limited quantities next year. Supply will increase over the contract period from 2010 to 2014. (more…)

Seoul, Korea, October 21, 2008
Source; LG Electronics press release
http://www.lge.com/ir/news_ir/

LG Electronics (LG), a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, decided at its board of directors meeting held on October 20 to convert its A1 plasma panel-manufacturing line in Gumi, Korea, into solar cell production lines. LG plans to invest KRW 220 billion by 2010 to establish two production lines. The company expects that the first line will be able to begin mass production from the first quarter of 2010, with the second line beginning full operations in the first quarter of 2011. Both lines will manufacture crystalline silicon solar cells and modules with a capacity of 120MW each. (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…)