REC – An All In One Solar Company
Headquartered in Oslo – Norway, the REC Group is the world’s largest producer of silicon materials for photovoltaic (PV) applications and PV wafers, as well as a significant producer of cells and modules.
Simply put, one stop shopping in the photovoltaic manufacturing world. (more…)
Researchers at the Australian National University are working with a new Australian company, Spark Solar Australia and Braggone Oy on a three-year project to develop spray-on solar panels that are both cheap and highly efficient.
Traditionally, solar cells are made of silicon coated with a thin layer of anti-reflective silicon nitrate. The cells are expensive to produce because they are made in a vacuum and creating a vacuum like situation doesn’t come cheap. If this step can be skipped from the solar cell production, price tags can be brought down considerably. The new method uses a spray-on hydrogen film and spray-on anti-reflective film. In this spray-on method vacuums are not needed. The cells travel along a conveyor belt where the films are sprayed on. The simplified process could trim down about $5 million in capital equipment costs per medium-sized factory. The manufacturer can save and produce solar cells at a much cheaper rate. Testing of the process is now taking place at the ANU, and the technology should be available toward the end of 2011. (more…)
A new antireflective coating developed by researchers at Rensselaer
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered, developed, and demonstrated a new method for overcoming two major hurdles facing solar energy. By developing a new anti-reflective coating that boosts the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels by 96% efficiency AND allowing those panels to absorb the entire solar spectrum from nearly any angle, the research team has moved academia and industry closer to realizing high-efficiency, cost-effective solar power.
Solar panels convert the most light into electricity when the sun shines directly on them. Untreated silicon solar cells absorb only 67.4% of sunlight and as soon as it wanes, so does efficiency. Meaning that nearly one-third (at peak) of that sunlight is reflected away and thus unharvestable. (more…)
Ok….but, don’t get overly excited. Planet Green doesn’t start running the new episodes until May. In the meantime………..
Just to show you how much Greensburg is growing, here is a run down of permits being issued:
What a way to start the new year out!
Univ. of Colorado's donation
The University of Colorado (CU) donated their winning home from the 2005 Solar Decathlon to GreenTown and the community of Greensburg. (more…)
WOW! —– SUN-TRACKING DEVICE
A team of three MIT students have designed a system that will allow solar power panels to track the sun without motors or control systems.The student team, called Heliotrope, won top honors and a check for $10,000 in the finals of a competition aimed at developing innovative energy technologies.
They designed the system to imitate the way plants track the sun across the sky, by using the difference in temperature between shaded and sunny areas to change the properties of the material supporting solar photovoltaic cells. The system, once built, is completely passive, requiring no power source or electronics to control the movement. Solar cells that track the angle of the sun can be 38 percent more efficient at generating power than those that are mounted in a fixed position. (more…)
Norwegian Wind Power
The Scandinavian country has the longest coastline in Europe and lots of strong wind. Norway’s Oil and Energy Minister released a 30 page report by the Energy Council stating: “Norway ought to have access of up to 40 terrawatt hours of renewable energy by 2020-2025, of which about half would come from offshore wind power.”
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Welcome Back!
The number of bald eagle breeding pairs in the lower 48 states increased from nearly 500 in 1963 to nearly 10,000 in 2006, according to the U.S. Fishand Wildlife Service, which attributes the comeback to the U.S. ban in 1972 of the pesticide DDT, along with the bird’s protection under the Endangered Species Act.
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Research scientist at two different universities are on the same path to
developing an inexpensive process that will allow you to paint on or print
out your own solar cells. Imagine, a simple and inexpensive energy alternative
for households around the world.
Last year it was reported that researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology
(NJIT) developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on
flexible plastic sheets. Lead researcher, Professor Somenath Mitra said, “The
process is simple, someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these
solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap (more…)
