THIN FILM SOLAR PANELS

Archive for the ‘Thin Film Solar’ Category

Thin Film Solar Roof Top Expansion

Wesley Clark, the retired U.S. Army general who ran for president in 2004, joined the board of SoloPower Inc., which is seeking to increase production.

Clark’s expertise in government and in international markets will help the company reach potential new customers in U.S., Japan, South Korea and Italy, San Jose, California-based SoloPower said today in a statement.

SoloPower operates a plant in San Jose and is building another in Portland, Oregon, which will eventually have annual production capacity of about 400 megawatts. The company’s thin- film solar panels are produced on flexible rolls of steel and weigh less than standard, polysilicon-based photovoltaic products, Clark said in an interview.

“I think the idea of going after rooftops with lightweight solar panels is a winning strategy,” Clark said. “The U.S. has hundreds of miles of big-box rooftops not designed to hold the weight of massive, glass-based solar panels.”

Clark is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative’s energy and climate-change advisory board and served as supreme allied commander Europe for NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

SoloPower’s investors include Hudson Clean Energy Partners, Crosslink Capital Inc. and Convexa AS.

NRG Energy Inc (NYSE: NRG) is teaming up with First Solar (NASDAQ: FSLR) for its Tucson, Arizona solar project.

First Solar will build the 26-megawatt Avra Valley project using its thin-film solar panels.

The structures will also include a single-axis tracker system, another specialty of First Solar, which tracks the sun’s arc across the sky to maximize production efficiency.

The system is particularly beneficial in the middle of the day, when the sun is at its highest and most powerful, in its ability to aim the panels in the most direct line of light.

NRG has created a 20-year power purchase agreement with Tucson Electric Power, a sector of UniSource Energy Corp (NYSE: UNS), to sell the solar power.

The companies plan to begin construction as early as this month, hoping to have it completed by the end of the year.

The project has the potential to create 200 jobs.

GE Sees More Casualties in Wind and Solar

(Reuters) – General Electric Co. expects increased competition and a reduction in subsidies by cash-strapped governments to lead to more companies exiting the wind and solar power businesses, but the industrial behemoth still sees growing long-term demand.

“There’s going to be a lot of casualties in the wind and solar businesses, there already are in solar,” John Krenicki, who leads GE’s energy division, told Reuters in an interview on Monday.

The U.S. may see an uptick in orders in 2012, prompted by the expiry of government incentives at the end of the year. However, the outlook for government support in the U.S. and Europe, in part do to economic woes, was not positive.

“I don’t expect a 100 percent withdrawal of credits but I expect change, so maybe less,” he added.

Nonetheless, GE expects the long-term demand for wind equipment to continue growing, especially as technological improvements made even the most economically challenging parts of the industry less reliant on legislated support.

GE Energy manufactures thin film solar panels and systems and is one of the biggest players in the wind turbine manufacturing business.

GE Supplying Thin Film Solar Panels to Grand Ridge Solar Project

ENP Newswire – 20 January 2012

Release date- 18012012 – SCHENECTADY, N.Y. – GE (NYSE: GE) today announced an agreement to supply 23 megawatts of advanced solar equipment to Invenergy.

Invenergy will install the solar equipment at its Grand Ridge Solar project (‘Grand Ridge Solar’), now under construction in Illinois. When completed in mid-2012, Grand Ridge Solar will be the largest solar farm in the Midwest.

The Grand Ridge Solar site is located in La Salle County, Ill., adjacent to the company’s Grand Ridge Wind project (‘Grand Ridge Wind’). Invenergy, a leading clean energy company and the nation’s largest independent wind power generation company, owns and operates Grand Ridge Wind, where 140 of GE’s 1.5 MW series wind turbines are providing 210 MW of power.

‘As we look to continue the expansion of our clean energy portfolio, advancements in technology have made solar a more competitive solution,’ said Michael Polsky, Invenergy’s president and chief executive officer. ‘Having installed over 1,500 of GE’s wind turbines at projects across the United States, integrating GE’s solar technology is a natural fit.’

In addition to supplying thin film solar panels to Grand Ridge Solar, GE also will supply packaged inverter skids that include Brilliance inverters, transformers and re-combiners, as well as GE SunIQ plant controls. The SunIQ platform will enhance the grid integration capability of the solar plant.

GE Advancements in Solar Technology

Late last year, GE announced its plans to build the country’s largest solar panel factory in Aurora, Colo. At capacity, the new factory will produce enough panels per year to power 80,000 homes and will highlight a $ 600 million investment in GE’s solar business.

Colorado also is home to GE Energy’s thin film solar pilot line, where joint technology advancements from GE’s Global Research Center and PrimeStar Solar have been validated and tested. GE completed the acquisition of PrimeStar last year.

Solar panels produced in the new Colorado factory will be more efficient, lighter weight and larger than conventional thin film panels. High efficiency is a key component of GE’s commitment to offer advanced solar products which reduces the total cost of electricity for utilities and consumers.

Lighter panels will allow easier installation and facilitate important applications such as commercial rooftop systems. Larger-sized panels help to lower total system cost by reducing the amount of racking and electrical components required.

Solar Frontier Inks $100 Million Deal for Thin Film Solar Panels

With a new $100-million-plus contract to install its thin film solar panels in the Mojave Desert, Japan-based Solar Frontier KK is emerging as a formidable new contender in the crowded solar market.

EnXco, a subsidiary of EDF Energies Nouvelles Co., agreed to purchase up to 150 megawatts of the panels, in the largest deal ever for this type of thin film technology. The panels are using a semiconductor blend of copper indium gallium and selenium, or CIGS, which until now has been deployed on a much smaller scale.

The enXco deal is notable as it represents market acceptance of CIGS panels, which have had limited success to date. Last year First Solar abandoned its research and development effort in CIGS, and Solyndra LLC, which also used CIGS as the basis for its solar panels, saw costs spin out of control and declared bankruptcy.

There are also several smaller privately held companies, backed by venture capitalists, such as Miasole Inc., SoloPower Inc., NanoSolar Inc. and Stion, that are developing CIGS technology. Solar Frontier has been developing the CIGS technology for the past 18 years.