In an effort to reduce electricity consumption, General Electric Company is going to combine energy-efficient lighting and energy-efficient appliances with energy management systems and renewable power generators. The systems – named ‘Net Zero Energy Home’ – involves photovoltaic cells and thin-film solar cells as well as advanced energy storage products that help save energy.

General Electric said in a press release that it is working with utility and government partners to help improve the power grid – “which has not changed much since the days of Thomas Edison” – in ways that will not cause consumers to “compromise their lifestyles.”

(more…)

If you're new here and you like our articles, how about subscribing free for our updates via RSS feed.

A United States-based company is seeking to produce the tiniest solar cells ever made. Semprius, based in Durham, North Carolina, was inspired by research conducted by Professor John A Rogers and his team at the University of Illinois.

(more…)

Japan says it is a leader in solar cell manufacturing. Taiwan and China want a piece of Japan’s solar panel market, especially considering the onslaught of business that is expected.

Meanwhile, a Taiwanese solar cell manufacturer Gintech Energy Corp. will supply Japanese companies this year on an OEM basis.

Low-cost production is why Gintech hopes to sell 50,000kw to 75,000 kW worth of solar cells each year to Japan. Gintech is already talking with Japanese clients – specifically, those companies that assemble and market solar power systems.

Gintech has a solar cell production capacity of 660,000 kW a year in Taiwan. Gintech’s major market is Europe and has sold just 5,000 kW of solar cells to a Japan.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. is the world’s third-largest solar cell manufacturer. The Chinese producer hopes to begin a major sales push in Japan also this year. “We are now able to supply sufficient volume of products to the Japanese market,” Chief Executive Officer Zhengrong Shi says.

And we’re on a good track, isn’t it?

Original image by Okinawa Soba

With Tokyo expected to make buying surplus solar power at double the cost a requirement demand for solar panels is expected to climb in Japan.

Image by richardmasoner

Sharp Corp. and Kyocera Corp. are Japan’s biggest solar cell manufacturers. However, Chinese, Taiwanese and other foreign solar cell makers are getting ready to enter the market in Japan.

There is a 2nd International Photovoltaic Power Generation Expo happening in Tokyo this week.

1. Taiwan’s Sun Well Solar Corp. has thin-film solar cells. The company already sells two types of solar cells, one see-through, mainly in Germany and Spain.
2. Chinalight Solar Co. manufacturers and sells machinery hopes to start selling its solar cells in Japan through the machinery sales network.
3. Most Chinese and Taiwanese sell their solar goods in Europe. Now they take aim at Japan.
4. Some Japanese chemical companies are aiming to enter into the solar cell business.
5. Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. is working on an organic thin-film solar cell  with built-in solar cells.
6. Fujikura Ltd. is displaying pigment-sensitized solar cells at the expo.
7. Kyocera is displaying a  polysilicon module cell that maximizes the light-capturing area by placing the electrodes on its back.
8. Mitsubishi Electric Corp. is promoting a polysilicon solar cell that uses infrared rays.
9. Sharp’s is displaying a solar module that requires an installation space of just 13 sq. meters.

In the end, the customer and the Earth will win this competition, eh?

Source (sub req)

 Not all is good news in the solar industry, and researchers are not helping …

Indian solar cell manufacturers were hanging out at the 18th International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference & Exhibition. Yeah, they really do have conventions for this kind of thing. This one took place from Jan 19 to 23, 2009, in Kolkata, India.

India’s solar cell manufacturers all have plans to enhance production capacity, BUT, many of them are postponing their plans because of the ongoing global financial crisis.

Titan Energy Systems Ltd, is based in Hyderabad-based. The company makes solar modules. Plans to increase its annual production capacity from current 100MW to 500MW by the end of 2009 may have to be put on hold for about six months says the company.

Jupiter Solar Power Ltd, is a solar cell manufacturer that was established in 2007. The company originally planned to start manufacturing photovoltaic cells last year in November 2008. That date was postponed until February 2009 because of the financial crisis. Additionally, Jupiter Solar Power is delaying its production increase scheduled for 2010, until 2011.

Business is good for those in the solar industry … not so good for those trying to get in.

A Japanese group was able to charge a Li-ion secondary battery with DC power generated by solar cells and supply it to home appliances without using AC conversion.

The test was part of the Development Project of Energy-saving Technologies for Weak Energy Storage Type Eco House.

The program was conducted by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment with an aim of developing technologies to prevent global warming.

Until now, existing home-use solar power systems converted DC power into AC power before supplying it to homes. Power generated by solar cells had to be converted twice because home appliances use DC power.

This new system can boost efficiency use because it directly supplies generated power without converting it, much less converting it twice.

CO₂ emissions generated by a typical home over a period of four hours can be cut by 40%.

Next up, a wooden laboratory building that uses the DC power supply system by 2010.

Get this – the group aims to cut CO₂ emissions by charging Li-ion secondary batteries with hydroelectricity generated by:

1. a waterwheel set in the drain in the bathroom
2. by a light breeze that blows through a room
3. by a man riding on a fitness bike.

Go Japan!

Source: NikkeiBP (Image by Marufish)

Business is bad? Where is business bad? Not in the solar cell industry is business bad.

During the 3Q of this year, Japan’s fiscal 2Q shipments of solar cells to the European Union grew 44% on the year in power capacity terms. It now reaches 304,500kW says the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association.

Europe accounted for 60% of all shipments. Exports to the Old Country rose 53% from the same period last year. These shipments are the main engine for overall growth.

The market for solar cells is firm despite the global financial crisis. Hmm … anybody looking for a job?

Nobody knows whether shipments can keep up the pace. We could lay a bunch of economists end to end but they still wouldn’t be able to reach a conclusion.

Best business decision these days – think GREEN! – via Nikkei (sub req)

Image courtesy of Zruda

Solar cells which have been in use for sometime have a new generation of cells being developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and the Northern University. This new solar cell technology makes use of very minutely sliced silicon chips instead of the rigid plastic currently used in these cells.

The solar cells which are nearly a hundred times slimmer than the normal silicon chips are placed on a flexible surface making it convenient to be used on a curved surface or fabric.

The cells also use greatly competent single crystal silicon in place of the thin film solar cells that are already being manufactured by Sharp and Q-Cells.

These cells have been specifically designed to fulfill various functions, including being used as a solar skin on top of buildings and aircrafts or as large easy to roll sheets as well as a tinting film on sun roofs.

Although the costs of production have not yet been compared to its low usage of material, researchers are sure this brilliant new technology will over shadow its recent counterpart. – via CleanTechnica

Silicon photovoltaic panels are the most expensive solar installations at the moment but things are about to change because IBM claimed they have the technology to reduce the cost of harnessing the Sun’s energy for electricity, down to $2 / W.

The company announced in a press release on Thursday, that using a large lens that concentrates power to around 2300x, they managed to capture a record 230 Watts on a square centimeter of solar cell which was later converted into 70 Watts of usable electric power. The main problem with such a power concentration is cooling down the silicon cell but I guess IBM engineers are experts in doing it, though not for photovoltaics.

“Specifically, the IBM team used a very thin layer of a liquid metal made of a gallium and indium compound that they applied between the chip and a cooling block. Such layers, called thermal interface layers, transfer the heat from the chip to the cooling block so that the chip temperature can be kept low.”

If IBM’s technology turns out to be true and the company is able to cool the solar cell efficiently, concentrated photovoltaic systems may become the cheapest type of solar energy available on the market. This would be a very big step in going mainstream, don’t you think?

The efficiency of a solar panel is given by the percentage of the sun’s light that is being turned into electricity. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) innovated a new thin film solar panel that just broke the world’s efficiency record, reaching 19.9-percent.

“The copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cell recently reached 19.9 percent efficiency in testing at the lab, setting a new world record.” Treehugger noted.

Traditional silicon based solar panels may have a hard time when these multicrystalline silicon-based solar cells are going to be produced.