Hot Topic:
Solar power

EDN

• Inspect solar cells without a microscope
  
  Author: Chun-Fu Lin and Tai-Shan Liao, National Applied Research Laboratories, Hsinchu, Taiwan; Edited by Martin Rowe and Fran Granville | Date: Nov 26, 2009
  Solar cells convert light energy into electricity, making them a renewable energy source. Solar-cell manufacturers often use SEMs (scanning electron microscopes) to detect defects in solar cells while they're still in wafer form.
• SMA Solar Technology opens solar inverter factory
  
  Date: Jul 10, 2009
  SMA Solar Technology AG has announced the opening of its 193,000-square-foot solar inverter factory in Kassel, Germany.
• TSMC bases extended European research efforts at IMEC
  
  Author: By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News | Date: Jun 3, 2009
  IMEC also announces new leadership, a silicon photovoltaics partnership, and a joint basic research initiative focused on studying the neuronal circuitry of the human brain.
• Solar energy: photovoltaics
  
  Author: By Alfonso Velosa III, Gartner | Date: Oct 22, 2009
  After years of double-digit growth, the modern incarnation of the solar industry has run into its first major market cycle. Limited credit, jittery customers, and currency fluctuations have severely hit PV (photovoltaic) vendors.
• Applied opens solar research facility in China, says it is largest non-government solar energy research facility in the world
  
  Author: By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News | Date: Oct 26, 2009
  The Applied center is comprised of laboratory and office buildings covering more than 400,000-square feet and contains an Applied SunFab thin-film manufacturing line and a complete crystalline silicon pilot process.
• Solar supply chain burned by disappointing demand, oversupply
  
  Author: By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News | Date: Jul 28, 2009
  Massive oversupply of solar modules, combined with disappointing demand, has caused average inventories throughout the solar supply chain to soar by 64.3%, forcing major oversupply and price erosion, according to iSuppli.
• US reaches third place in global solar PV installations, healthy growth predicted for overall market
  
  Author: By Gail Flower, Contributing Editor | Date: Mar 26, 2009
  Two associations presented sunny outlooks for the solar energy industry with growth reaching 5.5 GW of electrical power converted using PV worldwide in 2008. Both ranked Spain as number one, Germany as number two, and the US as number three, but government support makes a difference in this
• PV-industry power shifts downstream
  
  Author: By Alfonso Velosa III, Gartner | Date: Oct 22, 2009
  As the economic crisis spread on a global basis, the industry dynamics in 2008 shifted significantly. Early in the year, PV (photovoltaic) solar-cell supply could not meet demand. Looking up the supply chain for PV cells, supply of polysilicon was the critical gating factor for manufacturing PV
• First Solar breaks solar energy’s $1 per watt barrier
  
  Author: By Gail Flower, Contributing Editor | Date: Feb 26, 2009
  First Solar breaks solar energy’s $1 per watt barrier First Solar claims...modules to $0.98 per watt, a record in making solar energy affordable. By Gail Flower, Contributing...toward providing a sustainable and affordable solar energy solution: solar modules manufactured below...director of the Institute for the Analysis of Solar Energy at George Washington University. “The solar...by First Solar. The US leads the world in photovoltaics in terms of the technology with First Solar...alternative to traditional fossil fuels and for solar power to provide a meaningful contribution in addressing...possible in a statement. Germany has been a solar energy leader in large part as a response to the federal...
• Solar market to recover … eventually
  
  Author: By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Contributing Editor | Date: Sep 15, 2009
  The photovoltaic industry has been hit hard during these challenging economic times with demand dropping approximately 50% this year from 2008 levels and a severe oversupply situation occurring. Still, darkness has not completely fallen on this segment and industry insiders assert there are
• Technology squeezes the most power from solar-cell arrays
  
  Author: By Graham Prophet, Europe Editor | Date: Jan 22, 2009
  National Semiconductor plans to introduce the SolarMagic chip technology, which optimizes the power output from solar-cell arrays. The company expects the chip to be useful in the management of battery packs in applications such as EVs (electric vehicles) and HEVs (hybrid EVs). Solar cells usually
• A solar panel on every building
  
  Author: By John F. Mason, Contributing Editor | Date: Jan 21, 2008
  ...100 million to build a plant to produce sheets of solar cells equipped with an absorber 100 times thinner...components and Nanosolar's experience in the design of solar cells and panels based on thin-film device technology...s Beck Energy, an integrator of large-scale solar power systems, announced having won a highly competitive public selection process for a solar power plant owned by one of the largest waste management...line and the company's solution for building solar power plants at the outskirts of urban centers. ...the US market constitutes the 3rd largest for photovoltaics. Around 75% of these systems have been installed...
• Europe continues to outshine US with solar leadership
  
  Author: By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News | Date: Mar 4, 2009
  Thanks to an early and enthusiastic embrace of solar energy, more than 80% of new worldwide photovoltaic capacity installed in 2008 was in Europe, according to iSuppli.
• National Semi acquires Act Solar
  
  Author: By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News | Date: Mar 20, 2009
  As National Semi continues to put emphasis on energy-efficiency initiatives, Act Solar's power optimization products become part of the company’s SolarMagic family.
• Sanyo develops HIT solar cells with 23% energy-conversion efficiency
  
  Date: May 22, 2009
  Sanyo Electric Co Ltd. has announced that it has broken its own record for energy conversion efficiency in practical size crystalline silicon-type solar cells, achieving a efficiency of 23.0%
• Singapore targets solar projects as part of sustainable development plan
  
  Author: By Gail Flower, Contributing Editor | Date: May 6, 2009
  The Singapore government has released a blueprint for improving the use of sustainable resources, such as solar energy, presenting deadlines and financial support for projects.
• First Solar increases capacity, reaches 1 GW of solar electricity production
  
  Author: By Gail Flower, Contributing Editor | Date: Mar 23, 2009
  First Solar’s success story continues as it increases production capacity for solar by 1 GW per year, lowers cost to $1/W, and acquires Optisolar’s projected pipeline.
• First Solar plans 58-MW solar plant in North America
  
  Author: By Gail Flower, Contributing Editor | Date: Apr 17, 2009
  First Solar plans a 58-MW ground-mounted photovoltaic power plant for Sempra Generation near Boulder City, Nev, to be completed in 2010.
• MIT researchers claim 50% increase in solar-cell output
  
  Author: By Matthew Miller, Editor-in-Chief, EDN.COM | Date: Jan 8, 2009
  A team of physicists and engineers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) claims that sandwiching a solar cell between an antireflective coating on the front and a combination of reflective coatings and a diffraction grating on the back can increase the cell's output by as much as 50% for a
• Photovoltaic market to see 17% growth rate, Gartner reports
  
  Author: By Suzanne Deffree, Managing Editor, News | Date: Mar 16, 2009
  Gartner estimates the PV market will grow at a 17% compound annual growth rate between 2008 and 2013 to reach $34 billion revenue in 2013.