Your daily dose of Photovoltaic Technology Developments and Solar News

Honeywell has introduced a new backing material for the protection of photovoltaic solar cells used in modules that will be located in harsh or humid type conditions. Honeywell’s ‘PowerShield’ PV325 has a traditional five-layer design that includes two outer protective layers... Read more >>

Global solar technology giant SMA Technologie AG, the parent company of SMA America, Inc., has broken ground on an 82,000-square-foot solar inverter manufacturing plant in Kassel, Germany. The new facility is designed to triple SMA’s current production capacity to meet the global demand for its solar inverters. 
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HelioVolt Corporation has teamed with Architectural Glass & Aluminum Co. to develop and offer building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) products for its thin-film PV modules. According to NanoMarkets, a market research firm, BIPV products are one of the largest market opportunities for thin-film products, and are expected to constitute about $800 million in 2011.  Read more >>

CPV solar cell manufacturer, EMCORE has received a $28 million order for 70MW of concentrator solar cell receivers to be deployed in various solar plant installations by ES System of Gwang-Ju, South Korea. Production has already commenced and shipments are scheduled to occur over the next 24 months, according to EMCORE. Read more >>

A start-up, SUNRGI, based in the U.S. has claimed that its ‘Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics’ (XCPV) solar system technology will be able to meet electricity generating costs of 5 cents per kWh (kilowatt hour), making it competitive with conventional energy generation technologies. Read more >>

California-based OptiSolar has contributed to the state’s aim of sourcing 20% of its power from renewable sources with the planned establishment of a solar power farm in San Luis Obispo County. Located on the northwest of the Clarissa Plains, the 550MW PV farm’s location... Read more >>

eSolar has announced that it has closed $130 million in funding from Google.org, Idealab and Oak Investment Partners, among others. The thermal power plant manufacturer aims to begin construction and deployment of pre-fabricated power plants that achieve economies of scale at 33MW. Read more >>

Spire Corporation has received a contract from Alpex Exports Pvt. Ltd for a 15MW semi-automated crystalline cell module manufacturing line, which will be the international trading company’s first solar energy facility. Read more >>

Ascent Solar has signed a cooperation agreement with Giscosa Sociedad Limitada of Spain, a rubber membrane manufacturer and distributor, for the development of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roofing products for distribution in Europe. Read more >>

SemiSouth Laboratories, Inc. and the Center for Advanced Vehicle Systems (CAVS) at Mississippi State University have demonstrated that SemiSouth's enhancement-mode silicon carbide (SiC) Junction Field Effect Transistor (JFET) reduced an off-the-shelf solar inverter energy loss by as much as 50 percent. Read more >>