United States
Passivation Discovery Promises Important New Applications
15 September 2010POSTED IN Applications News
Natcore Technology Inc. researchers have discovered a method to “passivate” the surface of the solar cell on which a silica film has been grown using Natcore's liquid phase deposition (LPD) process.
Natcore Increases Thin-Film Growth Rate by Factor of 10
15 September 2010POSTED IN Applications News
Scientists at Natcore Technology Inc. working at the Ohio State University facilities have discovered methods to increase by 10 times the rate at which thin films are grown using Natcore's proprietary liquid phase deposition (LPD) process.
Sunvalley Solar Awarded $3.69M Solar Power Contract
15 September 2010POSTED IN Business News
Sunvalley Solar, Inc., a provider of solar power technology and solar system integration, announced that it has signed its largest commercial solar installation contract to-date with Long Life Farms, Inc.
Transforming Brownfield Sites into Solar Fields
15 September 2010POSTED IN Applications News
Opel Solar, Inc. and TrueNorth Solar & Environmental, Llc announced a strategic partnership to install utility-scale solar fields on so-called “brownfield sites” across North America.
Carbon Nanotube Fibers Concentrate Solar Energy
15 September 2010POSTED IN Research
Chemical engineers from MIT in Cambridge, Mass. have used single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) to make antenna-like structures that concentrate solar energy 100 times more than a regular photovoltaic cell. These antennas can capture and focus light energy, potentially allowing much smaller and more powerful solar arrays.
Caption: This fiber containing about 30 million carbon nanotubes absorbs energy from the sun as photons and then re-emits photons of lower energy, creating the fluorescence seen here. The red regions indicate highest energy intensity, and green and blue are lower intensity. Image by Geraldine Paulus.
Constellation Energy to Add 4.4MW of Solar Power at Denver International Airport
14 September 2010POSTED IN Applications News
Constellation Energy and Denver, Colorado-based Oak Leaf Energy Partners announced today a new 4.4 megawatt (MW) solar installation for Denver International Airport (DIA).
Better Solar Cells Might Come From Mixing Mismatched Elements
13 September 2010POSTED IN Research
In what could be a step toward higher efficiency solar cells, researchers from the University of Michigan and the Tyndall National Institute in Ireland have invalidated the most commonly used model to explain the behavior of a unique class of materials called highly mismatched alloys.
Grassroots Tour Shows Solar Interest in US
14 September 2010POSTED IN Politics and Policy News
With 648 community solar tours registered to date, momentum is building to make the 2010 American Solar Energy Society's National Solar Tour the most successful grassroots solar event in history, engaging tens of thousands of solar-interested citizens across 48 states.
Radiant to Distribute Ascent Solar Modules in China
13 September 2010POSTED IN Business News
Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. announced today that Radiant Holding Limited will begin distribution of Ascent Solar’s lightweight, flexible, high-power, thin-film, copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) modules for building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV), automotive and portable power solutions in China.
Pushing for 100% Green Grid in US
13 September 2010POSTED IN Politics and Policy News
Green energy advocate Tom Weis is riding 2,500 miles from Colorado to Washington, DC on a human-powered, electric-assist "rocket trike," calling for a national goal of a 100% US renewable electricity grid by 2020.
Schneider Electric Building One of Europe’s Largest PV Power Plants in Southern Italy
10 September 2010POSTED IN Applications News
AES Sole Italia S.r.l. has chosen Schneider Electric as the main Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor for the construction, operation and maintenance of a solar energy project in the Puglia region in Italy.
JinkoSolar Eligible for California’s Solar Electric Incentive Programs in Senate Bill 1
10 September 2010POSTED IN Business News
JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd., a solar product manufacturer with operations based in Shanghai, China, today announced that three of its solar modules meet the requirements of the California Energy Commission for addition to the list of California Senate Bill 1 (SB1) Guidelines-compliant photovoltaic (PV) modules.
California Energy Commission Approves $10.5 Million in Loans for Solar Manufacturers
10 September 2010POSTED IN Politics and Policy News
The California Energy Commission has approved three loans totaling more than $10.5 million for California-based manufacturers of solar products and resulting in the addition of more than 430 jobs.
Virtual Industries Introduces New Vacuum-Tweezer Tool
10 September 2010POSTED IN New Products
Virtual Industries Inc., a supplier of manual vacuum-handling solutions, introduces the VWWB-2A series of substrate-handling wands.
Organic Solar Cell Structure and Photocurrent at the Nanoscale
07 September 2010POSTED IN Research
As researchers seek to develop organic solar cells with 10% efficiency, understanding the nanoscale structure of these cells becomes more and more important. Researchers from University of California, Santa Barbara recently applied photoconductive atomic force microscopy (pc-AFM) to studying the complex morphology and optoelectronic properties of organic solar cells.
Power-One Opens First US Manufacturing and Technology Center
09 September 2010POSTED IN Business News
Power-One will open its first North American manufacturing facility in Phoenix, Arizona, marking the sixth such company to move to Greater Phoenix since January 2010, drawn by Arizona’s Renewable Energy Tax Incentive Program.
Petra Solar Wins Prestigious SEGIS Award
09 September 2010POSTED IN Business News
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Sandia National Laboratories has awarded Petra Solar its prestigious Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS) contract as part of the US DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Program.
Leading PV Companies: Bellwethers of an Industry
09 September 2010POSTED IN Business Features
In the recently released “Report on Photovoltaics: PV Market Overview by the European Photonics Industry Consortium," six industry manufacturers are identified as the leaders of the solar industry. In this third article in a series covering the EPIC report, we provide details on who these leaders are, market share and what regions of the world have been production leaders and how that has and will change in time.
Ice Energy to Provide Energy Storage Technology Under California Solar Initiative Grant
09 September 2010POSTED IN Politics and Policy News
Ice Energy, a leading provider of smart-grid enabled, advanced energy storage solutions to the electric utility industry, will work with SunPower Corp., on a unique pilot project funded by the California Public Utilities Commission that will combine its Ice Bear energy storage technology with SunPower's photovoltaic (PV) solar systems.
Insuring the Renewable Energy Industry
08 September 2010POSTED IN Business News
Stuckey & Company's new Element – A Green Insurance Program provides broad coverage for companies involved in solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and hydro energy projects.
