National Renewable Energy Laboratory NREL

CIGS monolithically integrated modules achieve substantial efficiency

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.

Solar cell efficiency record for space satellite markets

A world record of 40.8 percent in solar cell efficiency with a photovoltaic device has been claimed by the Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in the US.

News from SEMICON West and InterSolar North America

IDTechEx report on the SEMICON West event held in San Francisco in mid July - an event with over one thousand exhibitors covering the silicon supply chain.

Replacing printed silver with copper

The spot price of silver is up over 50% in the past 12 months and it continues to trend upward because silver supplies are falling fast while demand from China, India, Russia and Eastern Europe is climbing. As a reult, a lot of work is underway for alternatives.

Highlights of Photovoltaics beyond Conventional Silicon event

IDTechEx shed light on progress of technologies at Photovoltaics beyond Conventional Silicon conference held in Denver.

IDTechEx Photovoltaics Beyond Conventional Silicon 2008 event

This week IDTechEx is holding its first event dedicated to Photovoltaic (PV) technologies beyond conventional silicon. It covers the increasing work on CIGS, CdTe, Organic PV and many other chemistry devices, offering benefits over conventional silicon PV such as cost, weight and ease of installation.

OLLA final event symposium, Eindhoven 12.8.08

The final symposium of the OLLA OLED lighting project took place on the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven Netherlands 12.6.08 with about 80 attending the exhibition and about 60 attending the half day conference.

Plextronics signs MOU to supply solar technology to Korean company

Plextronics, Inc. has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Korea Parts & Fasteners (KPF) to create a research and development center for organic photovoltaic process development.

Impossible photovoltaics

Conventional silicon photovoltaics is a non-starter in Antarctica because it is very poor at low angles of incidence of light let alone low levels of illumination or reflected light and it is heavy.

Around the world with dye-sensitized solar cells

Dr Zervos at IDTechEx looks at the global picture for dye-sensitized solar cells.

PV news roundup from the 33rd IEEE PV Event

Over the last three years significant developments have been made with efficiency of organic based PV cells.

Photovoltaics - The macroeconomic view

Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx summarises the 33rd Annual IEEE Photovoltaics event and the state of the industry in the first part of this two part article.

Increasing efficiencies for thin film solar cells

Recently, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) announced that they have moved closer to creating a thin-film solar cell that can compete with the efficiency of the more common silicon-based solar cell.

Quantum Dot Materials May Improve Efficiency of Silicon Solar Cells

In the race to make clean technologies more efficient and marketable a breakthrough has been made by Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), collaborating with Innovalight, Inc., showing that a new and important effect called Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) occurs efficiently in silicon nanocrystals.

Plextronics Closes $20.6 Million Series B Financing

Plextronics, Inc. announced last week that it has completed a $20.6 million Series B financing. The round is led by Solvay North America Investments, LLC, a member of the Solvay Group, an international chemical and pharmaceutical group headquartered in Brussels.

Plextronics' Organic Solar Cell Technology Breaks World Record

The company's result of 5.4 percent establishes a new world record for single layer organic solar cells as certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), in Golden, Colorado.