Nippon Oil Corp,also know as Eneos and Sanyo Electric Co Ltd have a joint venture – 50:50 to produce amorphous Si thin-film solar cells and marketing power generation systems. Panasonic, which recently bought Sanyo has not put up any money yet.

Sanyo will develop manufacturing technologies for thin-film solar cells as well as the production of cells and modules. Eneos will make large-scale power generation systems using the modules. Eneos is also responsible for distribution and sale as well as provide material technologies for gases (eg, hydrogen gas) required in the cell production.

“The establishment of the new company is part of our efforts to become a comprehensive energy provider based on solar cells, fuel cells and rechargeable batteries, which are like the ‘three musketeers of batteries,’” Eneos President Shinji Nishio said.

Sanyo Eneos Solar have a target of 80MW per year sales with an energy conversion efficiency of 10% by 2010. Full-scale mass-production and an annual production of 1GW with conversion efficiency of 12% or higher by 2015. 2GW/year production by 2020.

The power generation systems are expected to be installed mainly in the Middle East.

Sanyo says it can make up for the slow start through superior technology and reliability.

“The solar cell business is a long-term project with its focus on 2020 or even 2050,” he said. “We are not at all concerned about a short-term depression. For manufacturers that have the lead in the thin-film solar cell production (by purchasing the production equipment in whole), the conversion efficiency will probably peak at about 7%.”

“In contrast, we will promote the research and development concurrently with the production and will constantly improve our technologies to achieve an efficiency of 10%, 12% and higher,” he said.

Business is good in the solar energy industry and will be so for a long time to come. Wonder if those report

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Researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have come up with a cheaper way to make ethanol from rice straw and other waste materials … cheaper by 30%.

A professor at the university’s Materials and Structures Laboratory has developed a catalyst that will break down plant-based materials resulting in a more efficient production of sugar. This sugar product is then mixed with water and heated to 100C (boiling the water away?).

More confusion on my part -

“The catalyst consists of a carbon material with multiple molecules attached to its surface. These molecules dramatically speed up the decomposition of plant cellulose, making ethanol production much more efficient.”

The bottom line – the catalyst can be made more cheaply making production of ethanol from non-food crops more cost-effective or about equal to what it costs to produce the bioethanol from corn and other foods.

If ethanol can be produced from non-food products, there will no increased food costs and adverse affects to third world countries, too. No?

Go, Tokyo, Go!