Technology

Applied Nanotech Holdings, Inc. has been awarded a Phase III SBIR grant worth USD$1.6 million from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Ontario photovoltaics (PV) market will reach 694 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity by next year, including 186 MW of Renewable Energy Standard Offer Program (RESOP) projects, according to a study carried out by Canada-based ClearSky Advisors.

Global building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) installation capacity is expected to grow more than ten-fold in the next six years, with figures reaching as high as 2.4 gigawatts (GW) by 2016, according to Pike Research.

Following the news that the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy has called on the European Union (EU) to include photovoltaics (PV) under the Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS), Professor Martin A. Green has told pv magazine he would like to see a fixed date for RoHS compliance.

Using carbon nanotubes – hollow tubes of carbon atoms – Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemical engineers say they have found a way to concentrate solar energy 100 times more than a regular photovoltaic (PV) cell. Such nanotubes could reportedly form antennas that capture and focus light energy, potentially allowing much smaller and more powerful solar arrays, according to Chinese news agency, xinhuanet.

Thin film solar module producer, Trony Solar Holdings Company Limited has signed separate agreements with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) to co-develop solar battery technology. The news comes as the company inaugurated its Hong Kong office in the Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks.

A spokesperson at Solar Frontier has told pv magazine that its parent company, Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K, has established a joint venture with Kitakyushu City in Japan, with the aim of establishing the country’s first recycling facility for solar panels.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced that the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Sandia National Laboratories is investing USD$8.5 million for four projects, which have reached Stage III of the Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS) program. DOE reported that these investments will be matched more than one-to-one by the SEGIS contractors to support more than USD$20 million in total projects.

imec has announced it will present several large-area silicon solar cells with a conversion efficiency above 19 percent at this year’s EU PVSEC, currently being held in Valencia, Spain.

In a second round of funding by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), U.S.-based SunPower Corp. is set to receive a grant of around USD$1.8 million from the California Solar Initiative Research, Development, Deployment and Demonstration (CSI RD&D) Program.