Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

Pilkington North America, based in Toledo, Ohio, will collaborate with Dyesol to develop opportunities in the building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) market. The partnership will utilize Pilkington's TEC series of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) coated float glass and Dyesol's dye solar cell (DSC) materials and technology.

In the latest example of increasing CIGS conversion efficiencies, the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has confirmed that Global Solar Energy has achieved 13.2% aperture-area efficiency on a thin-film photovoltaic module integrated with flexible cell-strings from its copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide production line in Tucson, AZ.  CEO Jeff Britt told PV Tech that median efficiencies have risen above 11% on the production line and that the company plans to launch its BIPV product line this year. The latest numbers exceed the company's efficiencies announced in September 2009, when NREL said it had measured 15.45% total area conversion efficiencies for the individual cells, and Global Solar had cited record peak efficiencies at the time of 11.7% on its flexible stainless-steel cell strings and median efficiencies between 10 and 11%.

Johns Manville (JM) has reached an agreement with SolarFrameWorks that will see the latter supply its proprietary BIPV CoolPly solar roofing components to JM, who will market these products through its JM E³ Company.

Italian architectural firm Mario Botta has used 80 UNI-SOLAR PVL-136 thin film laminates from United Solar Ovonic (USO), a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices as part of newly completed building design in Piazza San Lorenzo, Italy. The flexible light weight laminates are part of an ‘EnerCover’ building integrated solution provided by Ondulit Italiana SpA.The building uses a  retractable curved rooftop with an output 10,88Kw.

The Frost & Sullivan '2009 world building-integrated photovoltaic niche player of the year award', has been presented to Atlantis Energy Systems (AES), for its range of BIPV products.

United Solar Ovonic (USO), the wholly owned subsidiary of ECD, will supply up to 25MW of Uni-Solar PV laminates to Enel Green Power for installation on a number of buildings owned by CIS-Interporto di Nola in Italy.

United Solar Ovonics (USO), the fully owned subsidiary of ECD, will contribute to the 4MW BIPV system to be installed on the rooftops of Marcegaglia group's industrial plant in Taranto. The system will consist of Uni-Solar flexible lightweight PV modules. The project, one of the largest BIPV rooftop systems in Italy, is scheduled to start operating in 2010.

Dow Chemical has announced that Midland, Michigan, will be the site for the first full-scale production facility for its Dow Powerhouse Solar Shingle, subject to finalizing local, state, and federal funding.

BIPV module manufacturer, Applied Photovoltaics, will receive nearly US$1.1 Million in tax credits from the federal government. "There is no greater priority for this Administration than getting Americans back to work," said treasury secretary Tim Geithner.

Inovateus Solar has become the North American channel partner for Scheuten Solar products. Under the partnership, Inovateus will install Scheuten panels in both residential and utility scale BIPV projects. Inovateus' first order, to be received in the U.S., is for a 150kW installation in Muskegon, Mich.