Italy gets sunny as solar energy conference descends on Milan

On the heels of Applied Materials’ big splash this week detailing its SunFab solar module manufacturing line at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition being held this week in Milan, Italy, SunPower Corp. and a number of other solar players also launched products and technologies all aimed at improving the efficiency of solar power generation.

SunPower introduced not one, but three products aimed at homeowners, businesses and power plants. For homeowners, SunPower announced a 220-watt, all-black solar panel. For commercial use, SunPower launched its T10 solar roof tile, which does not require roof penetration and interlocks for secure, rapid installation, the company said, and noted that the T10 has been used in the U.S. since 2005; most recently at Shiseido and Wal-Mart stores. And for solar power plants, SunPower rolled out SunPower Tracker, a single-axis solar tracking system that it says tilts at up to 25 degrees to track the sun throughout the day with the aim of delivering up to 30 percent more energy than fixed-tilt systems while reducing required land area and installation cost.

SunPower also noted that Italy is taking a leadership position in Europe in promoting the use of solar power, and the country’s demand for solar is expected to grow substantially.

Another big European player in this arena, Oerlikon Solar, has named former Veeco exec Jeannine Sargent, to the newly-created position of CEO, to manage all of Oerlikon’s solar-related business under one umbrella.

Oerlikon Solar also announced this week its micromorph tandem technology that promises efficiencies of 10 percent and higher in the near future. The technology combines two different silicon materials — amorph and microcrystalline — in a top and a bottom cell, whereby the amorphous top cell is converting the visible part of the suns spectrum while the microcrystalline bottom cell is absorbing the sun power in the near infrared spectrum. As a result, the company says the micromorph tandem technology allows efficiency levels to be raised by approximately 50 percent compared to traditional amorphous single cells.

Also, following the launch of its first solar feedstock material last year - PV 1101 SoG Silicon - Dow Corning’s solar group this week announced three new PV materials at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy conference: an encapsulant and two potting agents that have been tested and qualified for solar applications, in order to take the guess-work out of figuring out which of the hundreds of available coatings, encapsulants, potting agents, sealants, adhesives and other related products work best for solar energy applications.

While the announcements are interesting, I’d like to be at the conference simply to be in Milan! Maybe Semicon could be someplace in Italy sometime soon….wishful thinking, I know.

–Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor