Building-Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV)
Daytime Cooling Technology Sends Heat Into Outer Space
15 April 2013POSTED IN Research
A new type of passive solar structure designed by researchers at Stanford University in California (US) combines a thermal emitter and a solar reflector into one device that could cool buildings even in full sunshine. The daylight cooling technology, also applicable to car roofs and other structures, sends heat back into outer space and could hold promises for solutions to offset global warming.
Roofing Considerations for PV Installers
03 February 2013POSTED IN Applications Features
Before beginning your rooftop PV project, the installer must consider many issues. Careful, detailed preparation can prevent cost over-runs, re-doing work and scheduling-delays during a rooftop PV project. Proper preparation and advance work ultimately means risk reduction for the installer and a more successful and efficient project, not to mention happy customers.
Mage Sunovation Announces Individual Art Solar Modules
01 February 2013POSTED IN New Products
Mage Sunovation says its solar power modules for architectural applications show multiple possibilities for a unique façade design, from traditional to abstract art up to the presentation of company logos.
Dow Corning, Crystal Solar Partner on Silicon-based PV
22 January 2013POSTED IN Business News
Dow Corning and Crystal Solar have said they plan to develop a business relationship to supply high-performance, silicon-based materials for photovoltaic cells and modules.
The two companies also intend to assess options for developing high-performance building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solutions for building and construction, focusing on both commercial and residential applications.
Peel-and-Stick Thin-Film Solar Panels
28 December 2012POSTED IN Research
Flexible thin-film solar panels have been in the focus of photovoltaics researchers for quite some time. The realm of applications for the widespread heavy, rigid solar panels is limited, and the technology is unsuitable for the design of wearable devices that would be integrated in clothing, for instance. Now, researchers at Stanford University in California (US) have succeeded in developing the world’s first peel-and-stick thin-film solar cells.
Self-Arranging Titania Nanotubes Promise Ultra-Low-Cost Solar Cells
05 December 2012POSTED IN Research
Researchers at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts (US) have developed self-arranging titania nanotube arrays that could be advantageous in solar panels or fuel cells. The one-dimensional architecture and the large effective surface area of the nanotube arrays could provide better solar harvesting capability as well as improved charge transport.
First All-Carbon Solar Cell Could Excel in Extreme Conditions
15 November 2012POSTED IN Research
Chemical Engineers at Stanford University in California (US) have built the first solar cell made entirely of carbon, a material considered promising by photovoltaics researchers for its high performance, low cost and earth-abundance. In addition to building an efficient thin-film solar cell that can be coated inexpensively from solutions, the Stanford team expects their devices to be particularly stable in harsh environmental, chemical and physical conditions.
Next-Generation Anti-Reflective Coatings
03 November 2012POSTED IN Research
The next generation of antireflection (AR) coatings has arrived and could help bump solar cell efficiency considerably by employing a promising new class of optical nanomaterials that allow for near-arbitrary control of the refractive index, conceivably the most important materials constant in optics and optoelectronics. Could these advanced coatings present a critical forward push for solar photovoltaics toward becoming a mainstream source of worldwide electrical power generation?
Upsolar Completes Solrif System in Sicily
25 October 2012POSTED IN Applications News
Upsolar today announced it has completed a 1MW PV system integrating Schweizer Solrif frames in Sicily.
Completed in partnership with local engineering, procurement and construction firm Ferplant, a subsidiary of mondoPower, the project will generate electricity for agricultural facilities in Portopalo di Capopassero, Sicily.
IBM Sets World Record for PV Efficiency with Earth-abundant Materials
30 August 2012POSTED IN Research
IBM has made great strides in the dire global quest for photovoltaics technologies that are highly efficient, relatively easy and cheaply to manufacture on a large scale, and made with earth-abundant, eco-friendly materials: The multinational technology and consulting corporation’s Materials Science team at IBM’s headquarters in New York state (US) has partnered with Solar Frontier and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, both in Japan, and DelSolar in Taiwan to develop Cu2ZnSn(S,Se) (made of readily available copper, zinc, and tin; referred to as CZTS) thin-film devices that have achieved a world-record power conversion efficiency of 11.1%.
Schott Sells Crystalline PV Production Technology to Monier
21 August 2012POSTED IN Business News
The Monier Group, a supplier of building materials for pitched roofs, has acquired Schott Solar’s InDaX technology for manufacture of roof-integrated photovoltaics.
BISEM Installs PV Curtain Wall Retrofit
20 August 2012POSTED IN Applications News
PV curtain wall systems provider BISEM today announced the installation of a building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) curtain wall retrofit with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).
Highly Transparent Polymer Cell Converts Infrared Solar Radiation
07 August 2012POSTED IN Research
An interdisciplinary group of researchers from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in the US developed a high-performance polymer solar cell (PSC) that is highly transparent in the visible light range and produces energy by absorbing near-infrared and infrared radiation from the solar spectrum.
Ascent Solar Provides BIPV Modules for Foxconn
06 August 2012POSTED IN Applications News
Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc., a developer of state-of-the-art, flexible thin-film photovoltaic (PV) modules, announced today that it has been selected to provide building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solar modules in a pilot application at Foxconn's new factory in Zhenzhou City, Henan Province, China. Foxconn is one of the largest makers of electronic devices and produces many products including the iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Playstation and Xbox.
Global Solar Energy Enters Japanese Market
18 July 2012POSTED IN Applications News
Flexible solar technology company Global Solar Energy today announced an expansion into Japan’s growing solar market, establishing local partnerships and offering a new design of its PowerFLEX BIPV system that has been adapted specifically for use on rooftops in Japan.
Together with partners CBC Co., Eco Holdings and OG Corporation, Global Solar offers Japanese businesses flexible solar roofing modules, taking advantage of the country’s new feed-in tariff.
Paintable Battery Works with Solar Cells
12 July 2012POSTED IN Research
Materials scientists at Rice University in Houston, Texas (US) have developed a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that can be painted on virtually any surface. The new fabrication technique would open the door to new design and integration possibilities for storage devices. Could Rice’s breakthrough be a leap towards hybrid devices that one day would marry paintable batteries with paintable photovoltaics?
Exciton Research Rewrites Design Rules for Polymers
25 June 2012POSTED IN Research
Lin X. Chen at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory is taking a fresh approach to improving organic solar cells by investigating the exciton, a “quasi-particle” few other researchers have focused on in the quest to help this promising yet seemingly lab-bound technology break out into the real world.
Advancing Electricity-Generating Window Coatings
21 June 2012POSTED IN Research
Earlier this spring, we reported on a breakthrough in building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV): a virtually ‘invisible’ conductive wiring system that transports electricity on glass windows, developed by New Energy Technologies, Inc. at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Now the partners announced an improvement in its manufacturing technique that should lead to higher speed, lower costs and greater durability for the coatings.
"Star Material" Boosts Dye-Sensitised Solar Cells 25%
18 June 2012POSTED IN Research
Australian researchers say they have increased the efficiency of third-generation solar cells by at least 25%. The semiconductor in the new dye-sensitised solar cell (DSC) developed at the RMIT University in Melbourne is made from niobia instead of the traditional titania. Niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5) is an inexpensive, chemically stable and environmentally friendly material. Could this metal oxide indeed be the star material solar researchers had been looking for?
Intersolar Europe 2012: Sovello presents all-purpose BIPV solar module
15 June 2012POSTED IN New Products
Sovello GmbH presented the prototype of its solar module Pure Power SVM, called the M-module, for the building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) market segment at Intersolar Europe 2012 this week at the New Munich Trade Fair Centre (booth A1.160) in Munich, Germany.
