Oerlikon Solar and Rusnano/Renova Joint Venture open up Russian market for leading thin film solar PV technology

Oerlikon Solar today announced that Nano Solar Technology Ltd. (NST), a newly formed Russian high-tech firm, has ordered a 120 MW end-to-end Micromorph® line for production of thin film solar modules. NST is a Joint Venture between Renova Group and the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano). With the envisaged production capacity of one million solar modules annually, this is the largest equipment order in the worldwide thin film silicon photovoltaic (PV) market in 2009 to-date.The order includes Oerlikon Solar’s Micromorph® technology which raises module efficiency by up to 50 percent over prior generation technologies. The equipment will be … Continue Reading

Tiny battery traps solar power to run a house for 24 hrs

A small disc could be the solution for the efficient and cheap storage of the sun’senergy.A Utah-based company has found a new way to store solar energy – in a small ceramic disk which can store more power for less. Researchers at Ceramatec have created the disk, which can hold up to 20-kilowatt hours, enough to power an entire house for a large portion of the day.The new battery runs on sodium-sulfur — a composition that typically operates at greater than 600°F. “Sodium-sulfur is more energetic than lead-acid, so if you can somehow get it … Continue Reading

Global Photovoltaic market to reach US$48b in 2014, says IntertechPira

The global photovoltaic (PV) market, after experiencing a slow period this year, is expected to double within the next five years, reaching US$48 billion. Wafer-based silicon will continue as the dominant technology, but amorphous thin-film and cadmium telluride (CdTe) technologies will gain ground, and are expected to account for a combined 22% of the market by 2014, according to a major new study by IntertechPira.The Future of Global Photovoltaics Markets provides detailed five-year forecasts of the PV market by technology, application and geographic region. It also addresses financial incentives, such as subsidies, feed-in tariffs and purchase power agreements … Continue Reading

SolarCity introduces solar lease to customers of nation’s largest municipal

SolarCity® today announced the availability of its award-winning solar leasing option (SolarLeaseT) to customers of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the nation’s largest municipal utility. SolarCity’s lease combines with LADWP’s generous solar rebates, among thehighest of any U.S. utility, to make solar power as affordable for Los Angeles homeowners as anywhere in the nation. A SolarCity solar lease of a 4-kilowatt solar system, appropriate for a typical 3-bedroom home in Los Angeles, would start at $55 per month, with no money down, on approvedcredit.LADWP provides more than 1.4 million customers in the Los … Continue Reading

Switzerland’s Largest Solar Module Production Started

• Oerlikon Solar’s Micromorph® end-to-end production line enabled rapid path to production• Pramac Group facility could nearly double Switzerland’s solar photovoltaic capacity in just one year• 150 high-tech jobs created in the regionRiazzino/Trubbach, 23 July 2009 – The Pramac Group and Oerlikon Solar announced today that production has begun at Switzerland’s largest solar module manufacturing facility. Oerlikon Solar’s leading Micromorph® endto- end manufacturing solution enabled Pramac to reach production just seven months after completing their facility. The plant, near Locarno, Switzerland, will produce 30 MWp (megawatt peak) of thin-film solar panels each year and create 150 … Continue Reading