Since the fast track review bombshell was dropped last week I have been thinking about what kind of implications this will have on the UK solar industry as a whole -- not just how it will affect the large-scale market. As we all know, one of the many things this country’s renewable energy industry lacks is experience, which is why it was so encouraging to see some of the world’s largest and most influential solar players step onto British soil.
Solyndra has developed a new solar application for agricultural greenhouse and shade structures that takes advantage of light being able to pass through Solyndra’s proven tubular thin-film PV panel design. Research CeRSAA in Italy and the Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis, have confirmed the improved nature of the panel design and its ability to support crop growth underneath while generating electricity.
Hyundai Heavy Industries SG-Series monocrystalline and multicrystalline solar modules offer a wide range of applications and performance parameters with tight specifications. Hyundai’s PV modules are manufactured on advanced automated production lines that include both 2 bus-bar and 3 bus-bar modules for its 54, 60, and 72 cell modules.
Italy is faced with three very important considerations in determining how to power the nation: very modest domestic energy resources (it imports 87% of its electricity), resulting high electricity prices and abundance of sunlight. Consequently, over the last few years the Italian government has instituted a series of policies to promote solar photovoltaic (PV) deployment. Growing from just 60MW in 2007, Italy installed almost 2GW of solar PV last year - making it the second largest market in the world.
The irony of this won’t go unnoticed. The natural disaster and its repercussions leading to the re-examination of what was largely accepted as a ‘clean’ renewable energy are hitting the headlines.
Cyberstar, based in Grenoble, France has introduced their new 650/800kg Crystallization Furnace System for multicrystalline silicon ingot production. Cyberstar has been designing and manufacturing reliable and cost effective crystal growth equipments like Czochralski, Bridgman, floating zone, liquid phase epitaxy and, mirror furnaces (infrared or laser heating) since 1986.
Enecsys has launched the ‘Enecsys Duo micro-inverter,’ claiming it is the world's highest power density micro-inverter with dimensions of 262 x 160 x 35mm. Designated the SMI-D360W-72, it is designed to reduce system costs whilst supporting fully independent power point tracking of two connected photovoltaic modules.
On March 3rd, 2011 a group of 22 Czech Senators filed a complaint with the Supreme Court against a new Czech PV law, which introduces a 26% tax on solar energy production. The Senators are afraid of the impact of solar arbitrages against the Czech Republic in the near future.
Tosoh SMD has introduced new transparent conducting oxide (TCO) sputtering targets that achieve higher solar cell efficiency than standard targets. Tosoh's new TCO targets are available in planar and rotary configurations and are composed of either traditional indium tin oxide (ITO) or aluminum zinc oxide (AZO).
DuPont Microcircuit Materials (MCM) has introduced a new series of aluminum photovoltaic metallization pastes for rear-side passivated crystalline silicon solar cell designs. DuPont ‘Solamet PV36x’ photovoltaic metallization pastes outperform conventional aluminum compositions by delivering up to 0.8% greater conversion efficiency for solar cells when used in Local Back Surface Field (BSF) designs.
