Photovoltaics

There are huge opportunities for companies providing inorganic chemicals to printed and potentially printed electronics. Here, Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx, summarises some of the findings from the new IDTechEx report "Inorganic and Composite Printed Electronics 2009-2019."

Printed electronics companies Plextronics, Inc. and NTERA have teamed-up to provide a working demonstration that combines the key aspects and attributes of their respective technologies.

Future generation organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology has the promise to be the low-cost renewable energy solution.

The U. S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is seeking project proposals as part of recently announced DOE funding to accelerate commercialization of solar energy technologies.

Renewable energies play a decisive role in the energy concepts of the future. However, their potential will remain largely limited as long as the sun's energy can neither be stored nor utilized on a large scale. That is where organic materials offer revolutionary solutions. Current trends and the latest developments in this field will be on display at LOPE-C in Frankfurt, Germany from June 23-25, 2009.

Ascent Solar Technologies, has manufactured a monolithically interconnected 5 meter long flexible light weight module on a polyimide substrate.

A new addition to the flexible solar panel market, may soon come with flexible solar panels that use a transparent thin film barrier used to protect flat panel TVs from moisture.

Inkjet system capable of printing over 2000 high performance solar cells per hour.

In the last year, the burgeoning printed and thin film electronics industry has greatly enhanced its repertoire and changed its priorities, encompassing such things as rapid commercialisation of disposable and invisible electronics.

Dr Harry Zervos, technology analyst with IDTechEx attended the Thin Film Solar Summit on the 19th and 20th of May, in Berlin which was mainly dominated by First Solar's achievements towards lowering their manufacturing costs to under 1 dollar.

SolarWorld AG will be celebrating the topping-out ceremony of its new production facility for solar silicon wafers in Freiberg's Industrial Estate East with the Prime Minister of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, and many guests from the region and from local industry.

Researchers at UCLA have developed a new method for producing a hybrid graphene-carbon nanotube, or G-CNT, for potential use as a transparent conductor in solar cells and consumer electronic devices.

The subject of energy harvesting making small electronic and electric devices self-sufficient, usually for decades - is changing rapidly.

Dr Peter Harrop of IDTechEx continues his report from Hong Kong on just a few examples of printed electronics and energy harvesting developments in this vibrant city.

The annual report of Linde, the global leader in gases, is just out. It reveals what a fine job the company is doing to solve the challenging gas problems of conventional thin film solar cells as we await scale up of printed alternatives that do not have these problems.

Dr Harry Zervos, IDTechEx reports on the highlights of the second International Summit on OPV Stability held on April 21-22, 2009 in Amsterdam.

This one day meeting organised by the Institute of Engineering and Technology and the Institute of Nanotechnology started with Professor Sir Richard Friend explaining the theory behind printed polymeric transistors, OLEDs and photovoltaics.

Dr Harry Zervos highlights lectures and presentations of the Photovoltaics Beyond Conventional Silicon Europe event.

IDTechEx believes that the amount of venture capital investment along with the intensified work for the transition from lab scale to high-volume production is going to make CIGS a technology that will be taking up a large chunk of orders and will be dominant in the photovoltaic market.

With photovoltaic technologies playing an increasing role in the sustainable energy supply, the establishment of Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) as a centre for PV research in the Asia-Pacific region is an important step to foster innovation for this rapidly growing segment locally.

In the city of Moers near Duisburg, 120 project partners, customers and suppliers have inaugurated Germany 's largest photovoltaic plant using thin-film technology on a pitched roof.

the SOLARJET project consortium has been created bringing together French partners, ARDEJE, HUTCHINSON and CEA/LITEN, to demonstrate that OPV technology can be scaled up to an industrial step.

A "transparent super high barrier film" that offers the world's highest level of moisture barrier property with transparency has been developed by Fujifilm, state the company in a recent announcement.

iTi Solar has been selected by Solarcoating Machinery GmbH (ScM) of Germany, a supplier of turnkey production line solutions for flexible solar cell fabrication, to provide the first digital inkjet system for its integrated roll-to-roll solar cell manufacturing production line.

DuPont Microcircuit Materials (MCM), part of DuPont Electronic Technologies, will be presenting new research findings on "Advanced Screen Printable Thin Film Photovoltaic Front-Side Silver Conductor Compositions," at the IDTechEx Photovoltaics beyond Conventional Silicon Europe Conference and Exhibition

Although the world is in the midst of a severe economic crisis, the photovoltaics industry is still growing.

The ability of plants to turn sunlight into energy through photosynthesis has been successfully mimicked by scientists at the University of Southampton to produce a new generation of solar cells.

Plastic solar cells to power portable electronic devices may be available in 2011 predict Solarmer Energy Inc.

IDTechEx finds that the market for printed and potentially printed electronics, including organics, inorganics and composites, will rise from $1.92 billion in 2009 to $57.16 billion in 2019.

Trials promise a new era of solar cells that are printed like money.

MKS Instruments, Inc., has introduced the Genesis® Solar Yield Management System for solar cell manufacturers.

imaging Technology international (iTi) Corporation today announced iTi Solar, an equipment manufacturing division established to advance the development of precision industrial inkjet systems that enable solar cell producers to improve production efficiency and reduce manufacturing costs.

A new organic high-performance dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) has been developed that does not use Ruthenium.

State enhances commitment to Konarka with financing from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust.

Suniva claim its cells operate at about 18 percent efficiency, near 50 percent better than the average cell produced today. They hope to increase cell efficiency to over 20% by 2011 by implementing 3 improvements in cell design.

Spark Solar Australia has teamed up with the Australian National University (ANU) to create a new spray-on material that could make solar panels cheaper.

Plextronics, Inc. hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony recently at its headquarters in Pittsburgh to celebrate the opening of the company's first manufacturing development line (D-Line).

Recent experiments conducted by Greg Scholes and Elisabetta Collini of University of Toronto´s Department of Chemistry may bring inexpensive solar cells within closer reach, thanks to new insights into the way molecules absorb and move energy.

A solar powered plane that weighs less than 2.5kg may one day be flying around the atmosphere of Mars providing high-resolution imagery, anytime anywhere.

Tiny solar cells that power tiny microelectronic machines (MEMS) could be sprayed onto a soldiers backpack, uniform or military vehicle possibly eliminating the use of heavy portable batteries carried by soldiers for their electrical requirements.

New research showing greater efficiency from solar photovoltaic cells has drawn considerable industry interest.

Solar technologies are being adopted globally with strong growth predicted in the sector despite the current poor state of the world economy.

One of the limiting factors with solar energy is that it is only able to capture a small range of frequencies from sunlight - but this could change.

"If organic photovoltaics - to take just one example - are ever to be realized and marketed, we need to understand how the film formation process works,"

The news media are full of the details of the global financial meltdown. Is this affecting finance for the small companies and start-ups involved in printed and potentially printed electronics and electrics? We think not.

New research could lead to cheaper solar cells with vast potential

The non Contact aerosol jet process is scalable for industrial volume production and ideally suited for printing on thinner wafers

Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc., a developer of state of the art flexible thin-film solar modules, has announced that it has achieved greater than 9.5% efficiency for its flexible Copper, Indium, Gallium, Selenide (CIGS) monolithically integrated modules.

The German government is investing EUR 2.5 million in a project that will significantly increase the lifespan of organic solar cells (OSC) with the goal of yielding competitive organic photovoltaics (OPV) for potential commercial use.

G24 Innovations (G24i), a solar energy pioneer, has announced the appointment of John Hartnett as chief executive officer.