3M-Columbia Missouri- Produces Ultra Barrier Solar Film

3M to Begin High-Volume Production of 3M(TM) Ultra Barrier Solar Film

Business Wire
October 13, 2010

3M today announced the expansion of its manufacturing facility for its 3M Ultra Barrier Solar Film. As a key component supplier to the solar industry, this expansion will support the growing demand for high efficiency flexible PV modules. The majority of the facility expansion, located in Columbia, Missouri, is scheduled to be completed in 2011.

"3M once again demonstrates the value it brings to the rapidly expanding renewable energy sector by bringing our high-performance Ultra Barrier Solar Film to commercial-scale production," said Derek DeScioli, Business Development Manager for the 3M Renewable Energy Division. "3M is a recognized leader in ultra barrier film technology, and we are committed to accelerating our efforts to support the scale-up of our thin film manufacturing customers."

Designed to address the needs of flexible thin film solar manufacturers, 3M Ultra Barrier Solar Film acts as a replacement for glass with high light transmission, superb moisture barrier performance, and excellent weatherability. Compared with glass-glass modules, large area, light weight flexible PV modules manufactured with 3M Ultra Barrier Solar Film can achieve significantly lower balance of systems (BOS) costs by requiring less installation time, removing the need for metal racking, and reducing logistics expenditures. 3M Ultra Barrier Film also enable lower module manufacturing costs by allowing manufacturers to commercialize large area modules, effectively reducing fixed costs associated with module manufacturing, assembled in a continuous roll-to-roll process.

3M's Renewable Energy Division offers a robust portfolio of new and existing products, bringing more than 100 years of combined expertise in coatings, film, tape, adhesive and optical technologies to the rapidly expanding renewable energy and energy efficiency markets worldwide. In addition to the company's world-class R&D facilities, 3M works closely with leading national labs to develop and refine its energy generation and energy conservation technologies. 3M has expanded its global manufacturing capabilities for Renewable Energy Division products several fold in recent years to bring key products to commercial-scale production to meet customers' growing needs.

Visit 3M at Solar Power International: 3M will be displaying the Ultra Barrier Film and additional solar component technologies at booth #407.

About 3M

A recognized leader in research and development, 3M produces thousands of innovative products for dozens of diverse markets. 3M's core strength is applying its more than 40 distinct technology platforms - often in combination - to a wide array of customer needs. With $23 billion in sales, 3M employs 75,000 people worldwide and has operations in more than 65 countries. For more information, visit http://www.3M.com or follow @3MNews on Twitter.

Copyright 2010 Business Wire, Inc.

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90% of Americans want more solar energy

>90% of Americans want more solar energy: Red and blue see green future

(October 12, 2010) -- On the eve of Solar Power International, North America's largest solar energy trade show, a new national poll shows that the vast majority of Americans overwhelmingly support development and funding of solar energy, and their support for solar has remained consistent over the last three years. These and other findings were reported in the 2010 SCHOTT Solar Barometer, a nationally representative survey conducted by independent polling firm Kelton Research.

• 94% of Americans think it is important for the nation to develop and use solar energy. This was consistent across all political party affiliations.
• 80% of Americans agree that Congress should consider reallocating federal subsidies from fossil fuels to solar. Also read: US solar market, led by CA, will grow tenfold by 2014
• Over half (51%) the country would choose to work in the solar industry if they were to start working in renewable energy.
• Nearly half (49%) of Americans considering solar for their home or business plan to make a decision to adopt solar in less than one year.
• Nearly half (49%) of Americans are willing to pay more for clean, reliable solar energy.

Strong support for solar remains unchanged since Americans were asked the same questions in the August 2009 SCHOTT Solar Barometer (92% of Americas want solar developed now) and June 2008 SCHOTT Solar Barometer (94%). The difference is within the margin of error for these polls.

This support for solar power is consistent across political party affiliation with 92% of Republicans, 98% of Democrats and 94% of Independents agreeing that it is important for the U.S. to develop and use solar power.

Furthermore, four out of five (80%) Americans feel that Congress should reallocate federal subsidies away from fossil fuel towards renewable energy industries. Broken down by party affiliation, 86% of Democrats, 69% of Republicans and 81% of Independents feel this way. Americans understand the urgency of growing the solar industry themselves; nearly half (49%) of Americans currently considering solar power options for their home or business plan to make a decision in less than one year.

"For the third consecutive year, the SCHOTT Solar Barometer highlights Americans' wide and growing support for solar energy," said Dr. Gerald Fine, president and CEO of SCHOTT North America. "We're dedicated to delivering clean reliable energy and have created hundreds of green jobs manufacturing solar products here in the U.S. These findings show that the vast majority of Americans share our goal of promoting and growing the new green industry in the U.S."

"The message from the public is very clear: We want more solar energy! According to this poll, solar energy is more popular than puppy dogs or ice cream. It is time for policymakers to listen to their constituents and enact measures to rapidly increase our use of solar," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association. "As we debate many crucial social and economic issues during this midterm election, lawmakers should consider solar, not as an issue, but as an industry they can count on to create jobs, improve U.S. competitiveness, bolster our national security and reduce harmful pollution. It's time for Congress to see what most Americans already see; that solar is working for America today."

Scotts Contracting is available for all your Green Projects around the House or at your Business.  Click Here to email Scotty for a Free Green Site Evaluation.

When asked to choose one energy source to financially support if they were President, 45% of Americans would opt for solar over other sources such as wind (19%), natural gas (12%), nuclear (12%) and coal (2%).

Americans also understand the growing impact the solar industry is having on the U.S. economy and job creation. More than half (51%) of Americans said they would choose a job in the solar industry if they were to start working in the renewable energy sector. This was more than wind (20%), geothermal (9%), biofuels (9%) or hydropower (8%).

Nearly half (49%) of Americans indicated they would be willing to pay more for solar energy. In fact, the cost of solar is already on par with traditional fossil fuel options in several markets, and continues to drop as the industry scales up.

The SCHOTT Solar Barometer Survey was conducted by Kelton Research between September 27 and October 4, 2010 using an email invitation and an online survey. SCHOTT Solar and the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) commissioned the survey. Quotas are set to ensure reliable and accurate representation of the total U.S. population ages 18 and over. Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.1 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

SCHOTT Solar produces important components for photovoltaic applications and solar energy power plants.

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Robin's Carnahan vs Roy Blunt Debate News

On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 5:48 PM, Mindy Mazur, Campaign Manager <no-reply@robincarnahan.com> wrote:

Dear Scotts,

This morning was the first of only two debates between Robin and Congressman Blunt. And she hit it out of the park!

Those of you following the race know that Congressman Blunt dragged his feet, kicking and whining every step of the way, when we finally locked him into debating at all.

Now we know why.

During his 14 years in Washington, Congressman Blunt has been up to no good.

On September 25th of last year at an event in Hannibal, MO, Blunt told a crowd: "We've had Medicare since 1965, but Medicare has never done anything to make people more healthy."

You'll see when the debate airs on TV tonight that when Robin directly asked Congressman Blunt about whether he really believed these things, he claimed he never said anything like that.

Don't let a Congressman who doesn't keep his word to us or to our seniors get a promotion to the Senate. Make an urgent donation now.

He also denied that he's the number one recipient of lobbyist contributions in the entire House of Representatives. But it's true. Why won't Congressman Blunt just be honest?

We all "know" that Congressman Blunt is the kind of career politician who will flat-out say anything to get elected -- but today he gave undeniable proof.

Donate today and tune in tonight - at a watch party or on our website. Robin did an amazing job and I think you will like what you see!

Best regards,
Mindy

P.S. We're going to have the video available on our website -- watch it at http://RobinCarnahan.com/Debates

Paid for and authorized by Robin Carnahan for Senate

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New discovery paves way for pollution-free electricity production

Hindustan Times
October 11, 2010

London, Oct. 11 -- Scientists have identified new properties in a material that could result in efficient and inexpensive plastic solar cells for pollution-free electricity production.

The discovery by physicists at Rutgers University reveals that energy-carrying particles generated by packets of light can travel on the order of a thousand times farther in organic (carbon-based) semiconductors than scientists previously observed.

This boosts scientists' hopes that solar cells based on this budding technology may one day overtake silicon solar cells in cost and performance, thereby increasing the practicality of solar-generated electricity as an alternate energy source to fossil fuels.

"Organic semiconductors are promising for solar cells and other uses, such as video displays, because they can be fabricated in large plastic sheets," said Vitaly Podzorov, assistant professor of Physics at Rutgers.

Podzorov and his colleagues observed that excitons - particles that form when semiconducting materials absorb photons, or light particles - can travel a thousand times farther in an extremely pure crystal organic semiconductor called rubrene. Until now, excitons were typically observed to travel less than 20 nanometers - billionths of a meter - in organic semiconductors.

"This is the first time we observed excitons migrating a few microns," said Podzorov, noting that they measured diffusion lengths from two to eight microns, or millionths of a meter. This is similar to exciton diffusion in inorganic solar cell materials such as silicon and gallium arsenide.

"Once the exciton diffusion distance becomes comparable to the light absorption length, you can collect most of the sunlight for energy conversion," he said.

Excitons are particle-like entities consisting of an electron and an electron hole (a positive charge attributed to the absence of an electron). They can generate a photo-voltage when they hit a semiconductor boundary or junction, and the electrons move to one side and the holes move to the other side of the junction. If excitons diffuse only tens of nanometers, only those closest to the junctions or boundaries generate photo-voltage. This accounts for the low electrical conversion efficiencies in today's organic solar cells.

While the extremely pure rubrene crystals fabricated by the Rutgers physicists are suitable only for laboratory research at this time, the research shows that the exciton diffusion bottleneck is not an intrinsic limitation of organic semiconductors. Continuing development could result in more efficient and manufacturable materials.

The scientists discovered that excitons in their rubrene crystals behaved more like the excitons observed in inorganic crystals - a delocalized form known as Wannier-Mott, or WM, excitons. Scientists previously believed that only the more localized form of excitons, called Frenkel excitons, were present in organic semiconductors. WM excitons move more rapidly through crystal lattices, resulting in better opto-electronic properties.

Podzorov noted that the research also produced a new methodology of measuring excitons based on optical spectroscopy. Since excitons are not charged, they are hard to measure using conventional methods. The researchers developed a technique called polarization resolved photocurrent spectroscopy, which dissociates excitons at the crystal's surface and reveals a large photocurrent. The technique should be applicable to other materials, Podzorov claims.

The discovery has been posted online and slated for publication in an upcoming issue of the journal Nature Materials. Published by HT Syndication with permission from Asian News International. For any query with respect to this article or any other content requirement, please contact Editor at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com

Copyright 2010 HT Media Ltd.All Rights Reserved

Hindustan Times

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