cheap solar cells Archives – The Green Optimistic

V3Solar Spin Cells: Solar Power at Its Cheapest

Mila Luleva — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 12:49:13 +0000

Electricity generated from solar cells has been the subject of debate for quite some time now. As clean and as environmentally friendly it can be, its price has presented a limitation. CleanTechnica released an exclusive article this week, showing the latest technology in the solar field. The V3Solar Spin Cell could be just the solution […]

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“Pocket Solar Factory” Could Reduce Small-Scale Solar Panel Prices

Benji Jerew — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 21:31:02 +0000

For the most part, solar panels in calculators, cell-phone chargers, emergency radios, and the like, are a task done by hand. Individual silicon solar chips, about 0.5V capacity, are broken on score lines by hand from a larger chip, and then assembled and soldered by hand to achieve whatever voltage and configuration required for the […]

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New, Cheaper Silicon Wafer Technology Developed in The U.S., Used by Korean Company

Ovidiu Sandru — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 12:55:39 +0000

Hanwha SolarOne, a Korea-based company, and Crystal Solar, a Santa Clara, California startup are collaborating to produce world’s cheapest silicon solar cells by using a new technology developed by the latter. Silicon wafers are the most expensive part of a silicon solar cell and have so far decided on the final price. The industry has […]

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Low-Priced Chinese Solar Cells Pose Huge Threat to German Solar Industry

Ovidiu Sandru — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 11:46:26 +0000

Things are going bad for the German solar manufacturing industry, just as they have been for the U.S. one. The enemy are the low prices set by Chinese solar panels and their ever-growing piece of the pie. Now at only 6 percent, the German solar industry once occupied some 20 percent of the global market, […]

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Twin Creeks’ Ultra-Thin Solar Cells Aim to Reduce Costs

Mike Sandru — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:06:52 +0000

As you will have noticed, the problem with all these renewable technologies is that they cost a lot… and I mean a lot! So efforts are being made in this direction to reduce the price of solar modules as far as they can go. This is also what Twin Creeks Technologies has been doing lately […]

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University of Texas Discovery Could Turn Solar Cells' Lost Heat into Electricity

Mike Sandru — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:13:04 +0000

Solar cells are a real treasure if handled and improved properly. The problem with them is that they usually use silicon, so the efficiency rate doesn’t exceed 31%, at most. All of this is about to change once the organic plastic semiconductor material suggested by the University of Texas comes in place: a predicted 50 […]

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Toothpaste-Inspired Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell Gets Born at Oxford

Mike Sandru — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:52:59 +0000

According to the researchers, the glass can be produced in a range of different transparent colors for use in cladding buildings and windows. "It opens up a lot of versatility and a lot of possibilities for building design," said Dr Snaith.

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MIT Researchers Developing Cheap Paper-Thin Solar Cells

Mike Sandru — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 19:51:46 +0000

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has recently shown the latest results of the research projects made by Italian oil company Eni, regarding paper-thin solar cells. These could be used as window covers, to harvest solar power.

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NREL Building PDIL: Six Automated Robots Helping Solar Industry's R&D

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:50:50 +0000

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has built a robot that will help the R&D of thin film solar cells, analyzing possible defects faster and more accurate than any other existing system. It is called the PDIL (Process Development and Integration Laboratory).

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Scientists Hack Tobacco Plants to Grow Synthetic Photovoltaic Cells

Mike Sandru — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:36:03 +0000

A group of scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a way to produce artificial photovoltaic and photochemical cells by infecting the tobacco plants with a genetically engineered virus. Unlike traditional methods of making solar cells, this new technique is more environmentally friendly (because the cells are biodegradable) and cheap.

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