All About Solar | Green Energy News

October 8, 2006 – Vol.11 No.29

ALL ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news.

When designing a rooftop solar system for maximum power output it would be best to utilize every square inch of rooftop real estate. Unfortunately most rooftop solar systems are cobbled together with rectangular solar modules that are difficult to fit around vent pipes, skylights and air conditioning systems.

Ascent Solar and PermaCity Solar think they have a solution: Make solar modules that are custom-cut to fit around rooftop obstructions to maximize the amount of real estate that can be covered with power-producing solar modules. The companies have announced that they would develop a new line of solar modules using Ascent Solar’s thin-film on plastic photovoltaic solar technology and its laser cutting technology to make solar modules that fit tightly around rooftop objects.

And the benefits could be huge. A study of a 600 kilowatt solar system installed by PermaCity showed that the system could have been 35 percent larger - about 200 kilowatts larger - if all available rooftop space had been covered with solar cells.

The companies, too, say they will develop plug-and-play, easily-connected solar modules that will significantly reduce installation time. Quickly installed solar systems combined with planned cost savings in manufacturing could bring the cost of solar energy near 5 cents per kilowatt hour, according to the companies.

Ascent Solar has been developing copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) solar products. PermaCity is a solar system designer and integrator.

Visit PermaCity Solar at http://www.permacity.com/ and Ascent Solar at http://www.ascentsolar.com

Straight from the sky sunlight striking our flesh can give us a fashionable tan or a sunburn, but sunlight concentrated can melt steel. With mirrors it’s easy to get sunlight to do more work than frying our skin. Some solar developers say concentrating photovoltaic solar technology is the best way to get more work - more energy - out of sunlight while using fewer photoelectric cells. With fewer solar cells to do more work the cost of solar could continue to drop, they say.

SolFocus with its solar concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology is nearing mass production. The company has signed a manufacturing and distribution agreement with Moser Baer India Ltd. (MBI) to allow them become a volume manufacturer and distributor of SolFocus CPV products in India and neighboring countries. Pilot production is set to begin in 2007, with commercial production aimed for in 2008.

SolFocus, of Palo Alto, California is not just looking overseas. The company has set up a pilot production plant at home where over 4000 panels will be built and tested for reliability. The company will also be considering sites around the US for full scale production.

Another concentrating solar developer - Practical Instruments - has taken its first step towards commercialization of its concentrating solar photovoltaic product known as Heliotube (tm). The company has just received $8 million in venture capital funding that will be used toward that end.

Heliotube, which utilizes reflective troughs to concentrate sunlight on solar cells, includes a self-powered tracking system to keep the troughs aligned with the Sun as it moves across the sky. Heliotube products would be rectangular like conventional solar modules and could be used in place of them. The company says its products would use 88-percent less photovoltaic material for the same power output to help push the cost of solar south.

Visit Practical Instruments at http://www.practical-instruments.com/ SolFocus at http://www.solfocus.com/