All About Solar | Green Energy News

November 13, 2005 – Vol.10 No.34

All ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news...

Product placement - putting brand name products on television shows and movies - is a marketing tactic that has been employed regularly for years. It’s not by chance that a certain brand of clothing, a model of car, or type of computer shows up on the production set. Companies put those products there and often pay good money to do so.

Product placement, particularly when it’s a product that can contribute so much (such as a reduction in greenhouse gases, or increased energy independence) can be a good thing. Technologies such as solar energy need all the exposure they can get. Exposure is good marketing.

In this story, however, the product placement is also philanthropic, a good deed.

Sharp Solar has announced that it has donated a 4.5 kilowatt solar system for a home that will be featured on ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

The home owned by Nutsch Family of Douglas, Kansas had been destroyed by a propane gas leak explosion. Lacking the insurance or income to rebuild, Extreme Makeover built a new all-electric home incorporating Sharp’s solar system along with a 1-kilowatt wind generator.

The solar system included 27 167-watt modules as well as a Sunvista inverter. The system will generate enough electricity for heat and hot water, which will significantly reduce utility bills for the Nutsch Family.

The show will be aired in January 2006 on the ABC Television Network. (The specific date has not been released.) Visit Sharp Solar at http://solar.sharpusa.com/ .

The annual 25 percent or so growth of solar electric sales is apparently putting a strain on solar cell and module manufacturers. Solar suppliers are working overtime to meet demand.

(A recent trip past BP Solar’s manufacturing facility in Frederick, Maryland may have confirmed this. The employee parking lot was full. It was a Saturday morning.)

The growing demand for solar products also means a growing demand for raw materials such as polycrystalline silicon.

Dow Corning has announced that its semiconductor subsidiary, Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation will begin construction of a $400-$500 million expansion at its Hemlock, Michigan headquarters. The expansion will increase capacity by 50 percent and create an additional 100-150 full time direct jobs and an equal number of contractor positions in the next three years. Polycrystalline silicon, made by Hemlock, the world's leading producer, is also used in the electronics industry of course. Visit Hemlock at http://www.hscpoly.com/

Green Energy News Inc. does not make stock recommendations, but can alert readers to stock offerings.

SunPower Corporation has announced its initial public offering of 7,700,000 shares of its Common Stock at $18 per share, before discounts and commissions. All shares are being sold except 30,000 which are being held in reserve.

SunPower’s primary product is the A-300 solar cell which operates at up to 20 percent efficiency. The cell’s high efficiency is helped by incorporating electrical connections on the back side of the cell which allow for more exposed surface area on the front. The front face of the cells is solid black which adds to the appeal for building-integrated solar systems.

The cells have been used in projects such as the world’s largest solar electric power plant, SOLON’s 12-megawatt Solarpark Gut Erlasse in Germany. The company makes solar panels which incorporate the A-300 as well as inverters and imaging detectors used in electronics.

SunPower is a division of Cypress Semiconductor. Visit Sunpower at http://www.sunpowercorp.com/ .

The City of San Francisco’s Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant handles 80 percent of the municipality’s sewage. Processing all that waste water is energy demanding. The facility needs up to 2.3 megawatts of power to run it. To lessen the load on the grid, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) has built a 255-kilowatt, 20,000 square foot solar electric system at the site. The system will provide 11 percent of power needs while reducing peak demand on the city’s grid by 6 percent.

The solar project is SFPUC’s latest. Coming up in the near future is a 283-kilowatt solar installation at Pier 96 in San Francisco and projects planned for other municipal sites such as the Moscone Center West, the Northpoint Facility, Pier 50, San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco Airport and public libraries,health clinics and schools.

The Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant solar system was provided by PowerLight at http://www.powerlight.com/ .