All About Solar | Green Energy News

November 12, 2006 – Vol. 11 No. 34

ALL ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news.

What a week for the solar energy industry: A major corporate purchase, a major expansion and a new line of solar products on the way.

On Wednesday, in what could amount in the long term to one of the most significant match-ups, SunPower Corporation announced that it was buying PowerLight Corporation.

SunPower, which manufactures the most efficient commercially available solar cells on the planet, as well as solar panels and inverters, is a division of well respected Cypress Semiconductor.

PowerLight, privately owned, is a leading global provider of large scale solar systems. The company’s newest systems range from one megawatt to ten.

Both companies, as with all solar companies, it seems, are in the growth mode. The two well-grounded businesses are sure to complement each other. Together, they’ll be a company to watch.

On Thursday BP Solar announced a major expansion of its keystone solar manufacturing plant in Frederick, Maryland. With a $70 million expansion, current casting, sizing and wafering capacity will double to approximately 150 MW.

The expansion will create about 70 new jobs. Included in the expansion plans are 140,000 square feet of new building space and environmentally friendly upgrades to the existing facility. Included in the sustainable building plans are a roof garden, extensive water recycling and the utilization of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design from the US Green Building Council) design components such as energy efficient lighting, heating and cooling.

An auditorium, and solar and environmental educational stations for tours and school groups will also be built.

And by Friday, Prism Solar announced that it would be marketing and manufacturing solar products using bifacial solar cells manufactured by Hitachi.

(To the best of my knowledge this is the first opportunity for Hitachi’s solar products to be sold in the US.)

Hitachi’s bifacial cells collect sunlight from both sides, top and bottom, or front and back as it were, thus doubling the surface area that is exposed to sunlight: One side gets strong morning light, the other strong afternoon light.

The cells, and subsequent panels that Prism will market or manufacture, will open up a new range of solar power design possibilities: Think solar privacy fences, solar railings, or solar walls, ceilings or roofs in day-lit buildings; or perhaps mirrors or optics to push light around the back side of the cells or panels.

Bifacial solar cells and panels need a strong dose of creativity to be put to work effectively.

Prism is also working on its solar planar holographic technology which would likely include Hitachi’s bifacial cells. Hitachi is also working on optics like Prism’s that would feed light to the other side of the cell.

Visit SunPower at http://www.sunpowercorp.com/ PowerLight at http://www.powerlight.com/ BP Solar at http://www.bpsolar.com/ Prism Solar at http://www.prismsolar.com and Hitachi's bifacial SolAzure products at http://www.pi.hitachi.co.jp/solazure/index_e.html