All About Solar | Green Energy News

July 3, 2005 – Vol.10 No.15

ALL ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news...

Direct Global Power has launched a subsidiary, Prism Solar Technologies, in a joint venture with the inventors of a solar holographic technology. The new venture will lead the way for that technology going into production.

Further Direct Global, the inventors, and Prism, have joined up with Genesis Solar to manufacture the technology known as Holographic Planar Concentrator (HPC).

HPC technology grabs certain wavelengths of light and focuses it on solar cells. The concentrated light allows for fewer cells required for a specific power output. The fewer the cells, the lower the overall cost. The passive tracking nature of HPC also allows for more morning and late afternoon sunlight to be converted into electricity. The undersides of solar cells can also be used to capture even more sunlight and generate electricity.

Visit Direct Global Power at http://www.directglobalpower.com/

United Solar Ovonic will soon break ground for its second 25-megawatt-per-year, thin-film solar cell manufacturing facility.

The existing 25-megawatt solar cell production facility is the world’s largest and most advanced machine for the manufacture of thin-film amorphous solar cells. Ground breaking will take place July 15 at the Auburn Hills Commerce Park in Auburn Hills Michigan. Visit United Solar Ovonic at http://www.uni-solar.com/

The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) of Sacramento, California has added another $150,000 to its PV Pioneer 2 solar rebate fund. The initial $350,000, first made available in January of this year, was depleted by April because of the popularity of the program.

PV Pioneer 2 provides $3.00 per watt for installed, grid-connected, photovoltaic solar systems. Excess electricity generated by the system is sold back to SMUD. SMUD customers, receiving the rebates, own the systems and are responsible for maintenance. Private contractors install the systems. Visit SMUD at http://www.smud.org/

MIS (Mediterranee Industries Solaires) and Saint Gobain Vetrotex, both of France, have co-developed a fiber glass composite solar thermal collector.

Sheets of Saint-Gobain’s Twintex fiber reinforced material are thermoformed into solar collectors that include internal groves to channel heating fluid such as water. The molded-in groves allow the collectors to hold 10 times more fluid than traditional metal solar collectors.

The larger fluid capacity, along with the slow flow of fluid through the panel, makes the panel more efficient at capturing solar thermal energy than other solar thermal designs

The solar collectors are painted black for greater heat absorption and are protected by as sheet of glass or clear polycarbonate.The panels are easy to produce bringing down costs - 15 percent less than conventional products the company says. The panels are also corrosion proof, light in weight and, made, in part, from petrochemicals that come under the category of A Better Use for Oil than Burning It. (Sorry, can’t find the website for MIS.)