All About Solar | Green Energy News

September 17, 2006 – Vol.11 No.26

ALL ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news.

While General Electric has been going gangbusters with its wind energy division almost since the day it was acquired from Enron, its solar energy division, once AstroPower, has been moving a slower pace.

Finally, GE has secured a notable solar order. The company will be supplying three-megawatts worth of 200-watt solar power modules along with balance-of-system equipment for a project being developed in Yong Gwang, Korea.

GE says the order is the company’s largest single order globally to date.

The project is being developed by Korea Hydro Nuclear Power which supplies more than 40 percent of the nation’s power. The solar modules will be manufactured at GE solar facilities in Newark, Delaware. Visit GE Solar at http://www.gepower.com/

Windows on the sunny side of a home or office easily provide significant if not all of the heat for a well-insulated, well-sealed room even during coldest days of winter.

But what about electricity? Could windows be developed to generate electricity while still allowing light to stream in? Silicon is chosen as the semiconductor for the majority of the worlds solar cells because it is transparent when thinly sliced. Could even thinner silicon allow a window to function normally (let light in, let people see out) while still producing electricity?

Octillion Corporation of Vancouver, Washington seems to think so. The company says it has a series of patents and patents pending on a groundbreaking technology (they say) that incorporates nanoparticles of silicon that can be deposited (sprayed) onto substrates, apparently glass, to make photoelectric window panels. The product, if developed, would fit over existing windows.

It’s nearly impossible to determine the viability of a technology from a few words on a press release backed up with disclaimers. However, many new companies have no choice but to divulge as little information as possible to keep it out of possible competitors hands. The company does say it has entered into a research agreement with scientists at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Campaign for research and development of the technology. The collaboration gives the technology a measure of credibility. Visit Octillion at http://www.octillioncorp.com/