All About Solar | Green Energy News

March 12, 2006 – Vol.10 No.51

All ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news...

Teach the kids something in school and they bring it home for their parents to learn. Put ideas in the minds of children and those ideas are often there for life. Children become adults, consumers, then homeowners in the blink of an eye.

No wonder Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) is willing to put $1.7 million into solar education in California. In a few years they’ll have buyers for solar electric products. Parents might be convinced to buy now.

Included in the now-annual PG&E 2006 Solar Schools grant package are:

--- Installation of up to 30, 1.3 kilowatt $20,000 solar systems in public schools in the state. The systems will be used for educational purposes and PGE provides funding for related grade-specific educational materials as well as funding for solar science projects.

--- A solar-based curriculum training package for more than 600 teachers.

--- Bright Ideas grants totaling $200,000 for $2500 and $5000 awards to schools for innovative science projects.

In 2005 PG&E offered the same program with $1 million in funding which yielded 20 solar systems, 25 Bright Ideas awards and 400 teachers completing solar energy training.

Applications for grants can be made online at http://www.pge.com/solarschools . The deadline is April 30, 2006 .

Once known as the shoe capitol of the United States in its industrial days, Brockton, Massachusetts will build the largest solar array in New England - 425 kilowatts.

To be built on a remediated brownfield site, the array, to be known as Brightfield, will provide enough power for City Hall and a fraction of the police station load. The more than $3 million cost of the system will be paid mostly by the city - $2.1 million - with grants from the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust and the U.S. Department of Energy providing the remainder.

The project of 1395 Schott Solar photovoltaic panels will be built by Global Solar Energy beginning almost immediately. Visit Brockton at http://www.brockton.ma.us/ http://www.us.schott.com/solar/english/ Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust http://www.mtpc.org/renewableenergy/index.htm

Evergreen Solar is at it again. Just two weeks ago the company had well over $200 million in long term supply contracts on its desks. This week the company has added another $125 million to the tally for a total of more than $380 million in contracts with four solar distributors.

This week’s contract is a 4-year agreement with German wholesale solar power distributor Donauer Solartecknik to supply solar products made in Evergreen’s operations in Massachusetts and Thalheim, Germany.

Donauer Solartecknik, with more than $100 million in sales in 2005, is in the process of expanding beyond its German base to Spain, Portugal and Italy. Visit Evergreen Solar at http://www.evergreensolar.com/ , Donauer at http://www.donauer-solar.de/ .

Currently, because of supply constraints of polysilicon, the solar industry might be in a slow growth mode. But, high demand for solar generated electricity - customers with cash in hand - may be the driving force behind silicon-free or low silicon content solar technologies moving faster to mass commercialization. Money is always a good motivator.

Honda will be making non-silicon solar products and Shell has divested itself of silicon solar. Now a lesser-known company, Daystar Technologies, has quickened the pace towards large scale production of its copper - indium - gallium - deselenide (CIGS) solar technology by opening up a new division to develop the next generation of manufacturing equipment to produce its Photovoltaic Foil (tm) CIGS technology.

Since the CIGS is a spinoff semiconductor technology from the computer industry, Daystar will set up the new division in the heart of the U.S. computer industry - Silicon Valley in California. Operating there the Daystar Equipment Develop Group will have better access to the best human and technological resources in the semiconductor business.

Looking into the crystal ball, don’t be surprised if a larger, big name company is watching Daystar with eyes on future acquisition. Visit Daystar at http://www.daystartech.com/ .