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Sun Volt Solar

earth, the final frontier

Clean Energy, Clean Environment

We are at a cross roads in human history, we can choose to continue on as we have been, or we can make a change to improve our future and quite possibly the future for several generations to come. We are here to promote energy independence, a better environment, a secure future and a higher return on investment for your hard earned dollar. It is what I believe in, it is why I am in the solar business.

XsunX thin film solar advances

15 Mar 10 | Solar Electric, Technology

Thin Film Photovoltaics (TFPV) have the potential to dominate the PV market in years to come. TFPV is less expensive to manufacture due to reduced use or elimination of the raw material Silicon, the key ingredient in all wafer PV technology.  TFPV is also the key to building integrated PV (BIPV), peel and stick laminates and other low profile PV solutions.  Many commercial building architects and owners prefer low profile PV systems to the mounting of large PV arrays, which increase weight and wind loading and lower aesthetic appeal for some people.

The downside to TFPV is lower efficiencies, on the order of 7-9% for most commercially available modules.  This adds to the array area and adds expense and labor to a PV installation.

XsunX, Inc., manufacture of Thin Film Photovoltaics is working on boosting TFPV efficiencies to 19-20%.  Several development laboratories have seen efficiencies of 19% or greater in lab testing.  The difference between lab tests of specific PV modules made in tightly controlled conditions and mass manufactured modules is the purity of the substrate materials.  In conventional TFPV manufacturing, substrate is manufactured in a continuous roll process, making large quantities of low grade material.  These rolls are then cut up into 125 x 125 mm cells and installed in modules.  What XsunX is proposing is using a proven automated manufacturing process very similar to that used in the making of computer hard drives.  Smaller 125 x 125 mm solar cells will be manufactured individually instead of in large rolls.  Other parts of the process include a proprietary co-evaporation chamber which will speed the process and minimize contamination.

According to CEO Tom Djokovich, the cross industry system has the capability of making 600 million CIGS units per year, which equals 3 GW of solar cells.  With a 12% efficiency, the cost per watt will be about $0.80 wholesale.   Currently XsunX is developing the manufacturing machinery for this process as well as building their own thin film manufacturing plant.  They expect the first small production run in the end of 2010.

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15 Mar 10 | Solar Electric, Technology | Comment (1)

More Solar jobs in the Hudson Valley

14 Apr 09 | Solar Electric

In the good news department, another PV company has chosen the Hudson Valley to set up manufacturing facility.

SpectraWatt, Inc., a manufacturer and supplier of advanced silicon photovoltaic cells, announced it would move its headquarters from Oregon to the Hudson Valley Research Park in East Fishkill, initially creating over 100 jobs within the first year of operation. That will go up to 150 by the time phase one is up and running in two years.The company expects to be in production early in 2010. Its first factory line will have an initial manufacturing capacity of 60 megawatts; additional lines are being planned with site capacity exceeding 120 mw within the first two years of operation.

This is a good use of excess manufacturing space at the IBM East Fishkill’s Hudson Valley Research Park. Building 334 is currently a 300 mm and 200 mm chip fab for NXP (Formerly Philips Semiconductor). The press release goes on to cite an abundance of skilled labor plus many economic incentives offered by Dutchess County and the State of New York.

All of this is good news of course, for the local community and for the solar industry. I would like to see some type of solar thermal panel manufacturer in this area. Solar heating is still 4-5 times more efficient that photovoltaics. As proven by my own solar thermal installation plus many many more in the area, it works well in this climate and can make a significant reduction in residential energy use.

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14 Apr 09 | Solar Electric | Comments (0)

Photovoltaic manufacturing starts in Kingston, NY

26 Feb 08 | General

More good news on the local renewable energy manufacturing front. From Mid Hudson News Network:

A projected 400 jobs could be coming to Ulster County within five years with the signing of Prism Solar Technologies to the Solar Energy Consortium.

For everyone who believes that the way forward is to build better renewable energy systems, this is a very good thing. From their web site:

Prism Solar manufactures a new type of photovoltaic module that uses transparent holographic optical elements in its design. This innovative, patented holographic technology, collects and spectrally selects useful wavelengths from the sun and focuses them onto the cell to create electricity.

They look like this:

holographic optical photovoltaic panel

Damn, now you have to admit, that is cool. I’d put a big array of those on a couple of tracking mounts in my front yard and call it “Performance Art.” The basic explanation of how they work and why they are better than plain old ordinary PV panels is:

(By) increasing the optical efficiency increases the structures ability to trap more of the light by better controlling the angles that the light is diffracted within the laminate. Through this process, Prism Solar can tap the sunlight at its most advantageous point in the spectrum.

This allows for several innovations:

  1. Lower cost – uses fewer cells per watt of power.
  2. Reduces the amount of silicon required up to 85%.
  3. Transparent properties, can be used as skin on large skyscrapers without completely blocking light into building.
  4. Intelligent Passive Solar Concentrator (IPSC), uses both sides of PV cell.

More information is available on Prism Solar Technology Page.

When will this start happening? Soon. Soon…

They will start production soon at their current location at the Center for Innovation on Grant Avenue in the Town of Ulster. Plans are to eventually move to Tech City. Prism Solar CEO Rick Lewandoski said production will begin as soon as machinery is installed, and that could be within just a few weeks.

Lewandowski said positions from secretaries to engineers and scientists are already in the application process, and that employment figures in the county have already been affected by the joint venture.

Courtesy of Mid Hudson News Network.

Yes, I’ll take more technology, please.

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26 Feb 08 | General | Comments (3)

Solar Manufactures increase productivity

24 Oct 07 | General Business, Solar Electric

Reading several articles about PV production and increases in silicon feed stock. The outlook is good that PV panels will be more abundant in the next few years, which will hopefully lead to some price reductions or at least price stabilization. From Evergreen Solar:

The Quad furnace technology will be used in Evergreen’s new 75 megawatt factory in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The furnace uses a String Ribbon process in which a set of parallel strings are pulled continuously through a small molten pool of silicon inside a custom furnace. A thin “ribbon” is created between the two strings as the silicon cools and re-crystallizes. The ribbon is then cut into wafers, which are converted into solar cells and used in the production of solar panels — all under one roof. Evergreen’s current String Ribbon technology produces two ribbons at one time, while the Quad creates four ribbons simultaneously.

Kyocera has also stepped up production by building new production facilities in several countries:

In order to respond to increasing demand, Kyocera focused on research to improve quality , when enduring a shortage of silicon. The Company has now secured a stable supply of silicon materials from several suppliers, and accordingly plans to expand manufacturing facilities in stages and steadily increase production.

Kyocera has already established local production and supply systems for solar modules in Japan, Europe, the United States and China, the four largest markets in the world, to respond rapid rise of demand in these areas. Along with the phased increase of solar cell production to 500MW, enabled by the stable supply of silicon materials, new factory wings will be constructed and additional manufacturing facilities will be installed at each of the four bases. Capital investments amounting to about 10 billion yen in total will be made for expansion and improvement of production systems in order to achieve 500MW annual production output in the end of March 2011.

China has also been stepping up it’s PV production. The Chinese government has plans for several large PV power stations in the north western desert regions. Several Chinese manufactures have begun to increase production to meet this demand, as well as to sell overseas.

Integrated photovoltaic (PV) product manufacturer Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd announced it has completed the first stage of its Phase III 500MW manufacturing expansion plan.

The newly finished production lines add 100MW of total production capacity of polysilicon wafers, PV cells and PV modules. Yingli started trial production of polysilicon ingots from the new lines on June 1 and following detailed testing and certain modifications, recently launched production at full capacity.

Provided the economic and political conditions remain stable, this should be a boon to the growing PV industry here in the US. If oil prices continue to climb toward the $100.00 dollar per barrel mark, there may be a shortage of qualified solar installers.

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24 Oct 07 | General Business, Solar Electric | Comments (0)