- Thin-film PV Module Cost to Fall to $0.70 per Watt by Year's End, by Nuying Huang, Yokohama, and Willie Teng, DIGITIMES, July 1, 2010. a-Si thin-film module production cost to fall to US$0.7/W by year's end, according to Tokyo Electron (TEL) chairman Takashi Ito.
- Solar PV System Maintenance, by Bryan Banke, Solar Power Partners, renewableenergyworld.com, October 30, 2009. In today's popular solar publications the focus is unerringly on solar's leading edge: technology, technique and policy, with occasional forays into finance and sales. What is often missing is cogent discussion on solar's trailing edge: operations and maintenance. In the unpredictable cycles of earthly weather, solar facilities require a watchful eye, intuition, skilled hands and a budget.
- Alta Devices Aiming for 30 Percent Efficient at 50 Cents Per Watt, www.greentechmedia.com, May 11, 2010.
- SunPower Announces New, Maximum Efficiency Solar Panel Product Line, May 3, 2010.
- Solar Electricity & Methane Gas Collecting on Closed Landfills, by Stephen Levy, April 28, 2010.
- Why DC Power is the Next Wave in Power Generation, Storage and Applications, by Stephen Levy, July 4, 2009. This paper covers applications for solar energy that go beyond what most textbooks cover.
- GE to Make Thin-Film Solar Panels, by Kevin Bullis, technologyreview.com, March 24, 2010. This is a particularly interesting article as GE is a major player with its branding and distribution network. The competition should bring the price of these panels down faster than originally predicted.
- Silicon at its Limits? Solar Industry Has Some Tricks, by Michael Kanellos, greentechmedia.com, March 23, 2010
- Titanium Dioxide for Solar Cells, Forbes.com, December 10, 2009
- Multicrystalline-Silicon Module Efficiency Record Hits 17%, PV-Tech.org, December 2009
- New Method for Making Efficient Nanotube Transistor Arrays
- Solexant Wants to Build Plant for Thin-Film Here is a company that says that it can deliver solar for two dollars a watt. The payback for the two dollars a watt is a six-year payback. Not bad for an investment. It will only get better.
- Florida Solar Concept. This presentation includes some novel ideas on thin films which will be the second generation of solar PV materials. The second part is the Gainsville feed-in tariff discussion. The third presentation is on the Florida Energy Research Park.
- Sanyo “Smart Energy Systems”, from pv-tech.org
- Rooftop Solar, Batteries Included, from greentechmedia.com
- Improved Efficiencies in Solar PV, RenewableEnergyWorld.com & Photovoltaics World, September 26, 2009. The most important advancement in this article is the use of the n-type solar cell and its inherent advantages of potentially higher efficiencies and use of a less pure silicon. Aluminum oxide is an excellent top covering and impervious to UV radiation damage. Aluminum oxide single crystal transmits from the UV 200 nanometers (nm) to the infrared 5,000 nm with an index of refraction of 1.63 at 500 nm. The bottom line is one can expect a lower cost manufacturing process and a lower cost base material that may bring down the cost of manufacturing silicon solar panels in the near future.
- TVA Advisory Board Wants Meetings Closed, The Tennessean, by Anne Paine, September 13, 2009
- Have a Nice Day: Thomas Friedman Tells Why Not Solar Here?, by Thomas L. Friedman, September 15, 2009
- CEG_Solar_Marketing_Report_August2009
- Solar Business Developments
- DOE Offers SBIR for Sept 4
- PV Cost Reductions Bright Outlook
- Recovery Act Opportunities for Small Businesses
- Tennessee's Expanded Tax Increment Financing Statute Includes Sustainability Initiatives
- US DOE Increases Renewable Energy Funding
Links to articles posted on other websites:
- Nanocrystalline Entity: Solexant plans to beat First Solar at cost game with next-gen thin-film PV. www.pv-tech.org, November 16, 2009.
- New Solar Concentrator Design. Cheaper solar concentrator with fewer photovoltaic cells. PhotonicsOnline, May 3, 2010.
- Solar Metamaterials A Caltech group has created materials that could improve the efficiency of solar cells. By Katherine Bourzac, Technology Review, April 28, 2010.
- Solar and Agriculture: Double Cropping Energy and Food, from Treehugger, October 21, 2009. This experiment combines agriculture and solar to enhance the agricultural process.
- Superconductors to Wire a Smarter Grid, from www.technologyreview.com. A superstation for connecting three independent grids could help solar and wind power.