Manufacturing
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.
First Solar Honors Premier Suppliers
14 November 2012POSTED IN Business News
First Solar, Inc. honored its premier suppliers at the company's second annual Supplier Recognition Day, held on 13 November in Phoenix, Arizona (US). Approximately 160 of First Solar's top suppliers attended the event, five of whom were honored with the company's NOVA award for outstanding performance in 2012.
LDK Solar Ends Solar Wafer Supply Deal
14 November 2012POSTED IN Business News
LDK Solar is ending a long-term solar wafer supply deal with an unnamed Europe-based customer of its photovoltaic products.
Bisol Group Returns to Production After Flood
14 November 2012POSTED IN Business News
The Bisol Group, which is a PV manufacturer based in Slovenia, had its warehouses flooded last week when extreme rainstorms hit the region. The company announced that at the beginning of this week its production became fully operational again.
Inspection and Measurement of PV Ingots, Wafers and Cells
13 November 2012POSTED IN Applications Features
It cannot be repeated often enough. Inspection of solar panels during production improves the quality, lifetime and energy conversion efficiency, as well as production cost. When inspection takes place from the earliest moments in production, it helps pick out the downgraded silicon material before it can obtain added value through later stages of manufacturing or cause machine downtime from parts broken due to defects. So, careful testing of wafers and PV cells during the entire production process is very important. Even during the pre-wafer stage, the ingots and bricks should be checked.
ITC Upholds Tariffs on Chinese Solar Cells
07 November 2012POSTED IN Politics and Policy News
The US International Trade Commission today unanimously agreed that China’s subsidies for its solar manufacturers have injured or threatened the US solar industry. The 6-0 decision allows the final tariffs approved by the US Commerce Department last month to take effect.
ReneSola to Provide Made-in-India PV to Indian Market
07 November 2012POSTED IN Applications News
ReneSola today introduced its new Virtus II multicrystalline modules to the Indian market at the 6th Renewable Energy India 2012 Expo in New Delhi.
In addition, ReneSola has started providing locally produced PV modules to the Indian market and has it expects to provide 250MW of India-made PV modules over a two-year period.
Solar to Add Sheen to Tamil Nadu's Gloomy Power Story
05 November 2012POSTED IN Editors Blogs
Tamil Nadu state is often dubbed the “Detroit of India” because it is among the top 10 global auto manufacturing hubs, is one the most developed states in India with an annual growth rate of 8% as compared to national average of 7.4%. The state has an aggressive plan to increase manufacturing so that the gross domestic product is 23%, compared to today’s 17%. It comes as no surprise that the significant economic development has created a power deficit.
China Files WTO Case Against EU Solar
06 November 2012POSTED IN Politics and Policy News
China has filed a case with the World Trade Organization accusing some European Union counties of providing illegal subsidies to solar plants whose main components are made in EU counties.
Bosch Puts PV Business to the Test
05 November 2012POSTED IN Business News
The Bosch Group is putting its photovoltaic sector to the test. According to German newspaper Suttgarter Zeitung, the Bosch management wants to decide until the end of this year how it wants to react to the suffering business in the Bosch solar sector.
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?
Multiple Exciton Generation Boosts Solar Efficiency
30 October 2012POSTED IN Research
Scientists from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have demonstrated the first high-efficiency quantum dot solar cell (QDSC) with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) exceeding 100% for photons with energies in the solar range. Moreover, these QDSCs, which potentially could be fabricated at very low cost, could reach 44% efficiency through Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG). Current commercial technologies are limited to 31%.
PV Module Market Recovery Expected in ‘Second Half of 2013’
30 October 2012POSTED IN Business News
Overcapacity, a decline in pricing as well as slowing growth in key worldwide markets will serve to keep the global photovoltaic market for solar modules depressed for the rest of the year, with recovery not expected until well in the second half of 2013, according to an IHS iSuppli PV Integrated market tracker report from information and analytics provider IHS.
Global revenue for the solar module industry comprising both crystalline and thin-film modules fell for the first time this year during the third quarter to US $6.63 billion, down 7% from $7.14 billion in the second quarter. Prior to the decline, revenue had been up 2% in the second quarter from $7.03 billion in the first quarter.
DA Investigates Abound Solar
29 October 2012POSTED IN Business News
The Weld County District Attorney has launched a criminal investigation into officials at Abound Solar, a solar panel manufacturing operation formerly based in Weld County, Colorado (US).
Natcore Builds Black Silicon Solar Cell Using Scalable Process
25 October 2012POSTED IN Applications News
Scientists at Natcore Technology today said they have created a black silicon solar cell using processes amenable to low-cost mass production.
After recently treating a wafer to make it the “blackest” silicon solar cell surface ever recorded, according to the company, Natcore’s technicians used their scalable liquid phase deposition (LPD) process to create the black silicon solar cell, from wafer to finished cell, in their R&D Center in Rochester, New York.
Lux Research: Solar panel makers need equipment upgrades
25 October 2012POSTED IN Business News
Reeling from a glut of production capacity, makers of solar panels need to acquire innovative production equipment in order to cut costs, increase margins, and offer differentiated products, according to research released today by Lux Research.
Belectric Acquires Konarka Technologies
22 October 2012POSTED IN Business News
German solar company Belectric today announced it has reached an agreement to buy Konarka Technologies’ German subsidiary.
The company, which manufactured Power Plastic (pictured), a thin, film-like organic photovoltaic material, applied for insolvency shortly after its parent company around the mid-point of the year and opened negotiations with several investors.
China NEA Raises Distributed PV Target
18 October 2012POSTED IN Politics and Policy News
China’s National Energy Administration has announced it will raise the target for distributed PV installations to support Chinese solar companies recently hit with US-imposed duties on their products.
World-Record Nanocarbon PV Cells
17 October 2012POSTED IN Research
Researchers at the University of Kansas (KU), Lawrence, Kansas (US), broke the all-carbon PV efficiency world record with a 1.3% efficient solar cell built from nanocarbons, materials that could help drastically reduce the cost of PV technologies in the future.
Upsolar Smart Modules Powered by Tigo Energy
17 October 2012POSTED IN New Products
Upsolar today announced its smart modules optimized by Tigo Energy.
The first smart modules certified by TÜV Rheinland for Europe and North America, Upsolar’s products are now available for residential, commercial and utility-scale installations.
