photovoltaics

First Solar has signed a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, to supply its thin-film solar panels to China Guangdong Nuclear Solar Energy Development (CGN SEDC), the company charged with building and running China's massive solar plant, First Solar company announced today.

The solar farm in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, is planned to be a 2,000-megawatt facility when fully completed by its estimated date of 2019.

While several companies will be involved in the design, construction, and operations of the giant facility, CGN SEDC is the majority owner of the project and will be the primary overseer of the facility'… Read more

The Department of Defense will install solar arrays from start-up Skyline Solar on its bases in what should be a large-scale test of concentrating solar photovoltaic technology.

Skyline Solar said that the DoD will install its solar arrays at two domestic bases, which will have a combined production of 436 megawatt-hours of energy per year. The average U.S. home consumes about 11 megawatt-hours a year, so these will be relatively large solar installations able to cover a portion of the bases' electricity demand.

A single array is built around a metal trough which reflects light onto strips of monocrystalline … Read more

Konarka said today that it has achieved a record in organic solar cell efficiency but its products are still seeking a viable commercial niche.

The Lowell, Mass.-based company said the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has certified that Konarka's plastic solar cells have achieved an efficiency of 8.3 percent, the highest that NREL has recorded for organic photovoltaic cells.

Founded in 2001, Konarka has a facility to make flexible solar cells using plastic in a roll-to-roll manufacturing process. It's one of a handful of companies pursuing organic photovoltaics and other so-called third-generation solar cell technologies, which also … Read more

Thin-film solar manufacturer First Solar announced Thursday it's building two new manufacturing plants to accommodate an expected influx of work.

One plant will be built in the U.S. and the other in Vietnam, but the company has not released any details on exactly where it plans to build them within those countries.

Both plants are scheduled to be completed by 2012 and to create jobs for 600 people apiece. Together the plants, once fully operational, are expected to produce 500 megawatts' worth of thin-film photovoltaic modules annually, according to First Solar.

The introduction of the new plants, coupled … Read more

The New York Jets are taking their green image to another level.

More than 3,000 solar panels from manufacturer Yingli Solar have been installed at the team's Atlantic Health Training Center in Florham Park, N.J., making them green in terms of energy as well as uniform.

The solar system will provide the team's 120,000-square-foot training, teaching, and medical facility with 750,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

The New York Jets claim it's the largest photovoltaic system currently installed at any National Football League team headquarters.

"This project is the first of many … Read more

DuPont now expects $1 billion in photovoltaic market sales this year, up from a previous forecast to hit that mark in 2011, saying interest for solar materials continues to spike.

The company, which also makes a range of chemicals and iconic products like Kevlar and Tyvek, said the new forecast is due to research that makes solar technology cheaper and brings costs more in line with traditional energy generation.

"No one can doubt the continued explosive growth in the industry," DuPont spokesman Dan Turner said.

Demand for Tedlar, a polyvinyl fluoride film that backs photovoltaic solar cells to … Read more

The market for solar modules that are designed to be integrated into buildings in the form of shingles or windows faces a tough challenge given their higher costs and lower efficiency than competing products.

Building-integrated photovoltaics, or BIPVs, made by companies such as Energy Conversion Devices and Ascent Solar, are designed to be an integral part of buildings, in contrast to the photovoltaic panels made by First Solar, Suntech, and others that need to be retrofitted on roofs.

Given their unobtrusive nature, BIPVs were once touted as the next big thing in solar power, but have so far not taken … Read more

IBM and Saudi Arabia's national research group are opening a solar-powered desalination plant in the city of Al-Khafji.

The pilot plant will supply water to about 100,000 people and pump out about 30,000 cubic meters of potable drinking water per day. It will run exclusively on solar-powered electricity, and showcase two technology breakthroughs that were the result of a multi-year collaborative research agreement signed in 2008 by IBM and the Saudi research group known as the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).

On the solar end, the plant will use ultra-high concentrator photovoltaic (UHCPV) cells … Read more

MEMC Electronic Materials subsidiary SunEdison announced Thursday it has received final approval from the Italian government to build a 72-megawatt photovoltaic solar power plant.

The solar services company has found a home for its plant just outside Rovigo, Italy, a city roughly halfway between Bologna and Venice. The choice is not surprising given the community's many progressive green policies and initiatives already in progress.

Rovigo's motto is "the city of change" and it's a member of CLEAR (City and Local Environmental Accounting Reporting), an EU project in which member towns and cities pledge environmental accounting … Read more