Solar panel manufacturers, specifically those in the developing countries, use some harmful substances like Cadmium and Selenium which may prove difficult or costly to dispose of at the end of operational life of the solar panels. Water soluble solar panels may be the ultimate solution to the problem of disposal … [continued]
Solar industry manufacturing consortium PVMC and NREL aim to help reduce the installed cost of thin-film CIGS solar PV by 75%, an effort that falls right in line with targets set out in PVMC’s thin-film PV industry roadmap and President Obama’s SunShot Initiative.
Looks like I’m turning this into a daily thing. Below are 13 more cleantech (or sort of cleantech) stories from around the interwebs. For an additional 81 from the past day or so, check out this Google Doc. Clean Transport Greenpeace Takes On The World’s Biggest Carmaker… And Wins! Study: … [continued]
This article was originally published on RenewEconomy: Showa Shell, the Japanese subsidiary of global oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, has predicted that its solar unit Solar Frontier will be able to cut production costs of its solar modules by half in the next few years as it seeks to emerge … [continued]
A new conversion efficiency record of 20.4% has been set for thin-film solar cells by researchers at Empa and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. The new record of 20.4% is a big improvement over the previous record achieved by this team (18.7%) in May 2011. The … [continued]
Solar Frontier has developed solar cells that achieve 19.7% efficiency using CIGS technology, and without the use of cadmium. This new cell finally broke a previous record of 18.6%, which stood for 10 years. The 19.7% efficiency was measured by Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. This efficiency … [continued]
Editor’s Update October 3, 2012: I have confirmed with SoloPower that it has NOT actually published anything on the cost of SoloPower’s solar modules, and that the numbers in the original post (which we retrieved from Greentech Media) were extrapolated from another technology. As such, I’ve deleted lines referencing … [continued]
Despite its economic travails, Spain has continued to ramp up its position as a global solar power leader. In the latest development, the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) has announced that it will undertake a three-year research project aimed at producing low cost solar cells using a new approach … [continued]
Another week, another solar power efficiency record set! A California-based manufacturer of flexible thin-film solar cells and solar panels, SoloPower, yesterday announced a record aperture area efficiency for flexible copper, indium, gallium and (di)selenide (“CIGS”) modules — 13.4%. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) independently certified the record efficiency. “Importantly, the cells … [continued]
Leading venture capital firms are pumping an additional $55 million to fund the Colorado-based thin-film CIGS solar PV manufacturer’s expansion plans despite all the turmoil roiling the global solar energy market and industry.
