Commercial Thin Film Solar News

Miasolé Exceeds 14% Efficiency With Commercial-Scale CIGS Thin Film Solar Modules; NREL Verifies Energy Conversion Efficiency of 14.3% on 1 Square Meter Area CIGS Modules, Further Advancing the Significant Potential of Thin-Film Solar Panels to Be a Competitive Energy Source

Business Wire
September 1, 2010

MiaSolé, the leading manufacturer of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic solar panels, today announced that the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) independently confirmed the 14.3% efficiency of its large area production modules (1 square meter in size).

14.3% module efficiency is the highest independently confirmed efficiency for any commercial scale CIGS module technology.

"We are pleased that we continue to make progress in the execution of our technology, cost reduction and manufacturing roadmaps," said Dr. Joseph Laia, CEO of MiaSolé.

MiaSolé now offers bank financeable solar modules with efficiency comparable to polysilicon combined with lower manufacturing costs of thin-film modules.

MiaSolé's unique manufacturing process deposits CIGS on a flexible stainless steel substrate and produces all of the layers required for its highly efficient solar cell in a single continuous process. MiaSolé is the only thin-film solar company that uses sputtering processes every step of the way for coating the solar modules, thereby reducing manufacturing time and cost of production.

MiaSolé shipped 6.5MW in the first half of this year, and will ship 22MW in 2010. The company's products are designed for utilities and independent power producers to use in industrial scale deployments such as large-scale rooftop and ground mount installations.

AboutNREL

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

About MiaSolé ( www.MiaSolé.com )

MiaSolé is a pioneer and leading developer ofcopper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) thin-film photovoltaic solar panels, one of the lowest-cost, highest efficiency solar panels in the world. MiaSolé's primary mission is to advance the extraordinary potential for harnessing solar power as a competitive, sustainable energy source and enable grid parity by 2012. Based in California, MiaSolé currently operates two manufacturing facilities with plans to open a third facility in 2010.

Copyright 2010 Business Wire, Inc.

Business Wire

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Solar Electricity Patriot Place Complex- Gillette Stadium

SolarFrameWorks BIPV CoolPly system install at New England Patriot Place

(August 27, 2010 - BUSINESS WIRE) -- SolarFrameWorks Co., building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) manufacturer, announces the largest BIPV CoolPly system in MA was completed by Constellation Energy Projects & Services Group, Inc. (NYSE:CEG). The 525KW, state-of-the-art BIPV CoolPly commercial roofing system is providing solar energy to the Kraft Group's Patriot Place Complex, adjacent to Gillette Stadium, in Foxborough, MA.
The BIPV CoolPly system system simultaneously cools the roof and cools the solar modules in the summer. In the winter, the system provides additional insulation preventing heat loss while optimizing power production to promote optimal power production and energy conservation in commercial buildings.
The Association of Energy Engineers, New England chapter named the Patriot Place BIPV CoolPly Solar Project as the: "Best Energy Project in New England," awarding it the 2009 Energy Project Award. Projects selected for this award must push the envelope for creativity and/or comprehensiveness.
CEG financed the BIPV CoolPly system through a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Kraft Group. Under the PPA, CEG will own the energy assets and sell the electricity it generates on site to Patriot Place. The 525 kilowatt BIPV CoolPly power system on Patriot Place spans seven rooftops. The system supplies one-third of the electrical needs of Patriot Place and will generate 12 million plus kilowatts hours of energy over the next 20 years.

Follow Photovoltaics World on Twitter.com via editors Pete Singer, twitter.com/PetesTweetsPW and Debra Vogler, twitter.com/dvogler_PV_semi. Or join our Facebook group

SolarFrameWorks manufactures BIPV CoolPly in its solar-powered facility in Golden, CO. SolarFrameWorks manufactured this system with made in the USA materials. Suppliers include Firestone Building Products and Evergreen Solar (NYSE: ESLR). Silktown Roofing Company, a SolarFrameWorks partner, installed the proprietary solar electric roofing system.
SolarFrameWorks is a small woman-owned manufacturing business located near the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), a leading institute for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. SolarFrameWorks' CEO, Dr. Patrina Eiffert, a former NREL employee, is an internationally recognized expert in the field of BIPV, holds patents in photovoltaic technology.

If you are interested in Green Building on an Investment Property Check out the Benton Gut Rehab Blog Series-Benton Gut Rehab Green Blog Series

Part 1: History

Part 2: Stone Foundation Repair

Part 3: Tuckpointing the Brick Walls pt 1

Part 4: Tuckpointing the Brick Walls pt 2

Part 5: What were they thinking?

Part 6: Paint Pro Tip #35

Part 7: Repairing Water Damage-Exterior Wall

Part 8: 1st Floor Weatherization

Part 9: See the Difference a Little White Paint Makes

Part 10: Interior Framing-Plumbing-Laundry Room

Part 11: Kitchen Framing Tip #36-Benton Rehab Project

Part 12: Water Main Repair- Benton Rehab

Part 13: Benton Rehab Project Drywall Installation and Tip: Number 1172

Scott's Contracting
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Solar Roofing News

Global Solar Energy Rolls Out the Most Powerful Flexible Module to Roofing Industry; The PowerFLEX(TM) BIPV Revolutionizes Solar Roofing; Large, 300 Watt Module Offers Flexible, Lightweight and Easy-to-Install Design

Business Wire
August 31, 2010

Global Solar Energy, Inc. , a leading manufacturer of high-efficiency Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide (CIGS) solar material, today unveiled its flexible building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) module: the PowerFLEX(TM) BIPV. Specially designed for commercial and industrial rooftops, PowerFLEX BIPV modules can deliver more power per rooftop than any other solar solution. With the PowerFLEX BIPV module, rooftops can quickly and cost effectively start generating clean energy.

Global Solar will showcase its PowerFLEX BIPV at the 25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (25th EU PVSEC) / 5th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-5), September 6-9 in Valencia, Spain.

With 12.6 percent aperture efficiency, Global Solar PowerFLEX BIPV delivers the highest efficiency in the flexible module industry. The module has a large format (5.75m x 0.5m) and a high power density (300W) enabling it to outperform other flexible solar roofing solutions currently on the market, including 50 percent more energy and power than the current amorphous silicon standard.

Global Solar's PowerFLEX BIPV module directly addresses the biggest concerns posed by the roofing industry regarding solar integration. It is lightweight and can be applied directly to a roofing surface, requiring no mounting hardware, no roof penetrations, and creates no additional wind load. Designed especially for roofs, Global Solar's PowerFLEX BIPV maintains the integrity and aesthetics of a building structure. Because of its large format and high power density, Global Solar's PowerFLEX BIPV will also lower installation and balance of system (BOS) costs.

Although traditional glass solar modules are too heavy for many commercial applications, they have been one of the few options available to the building industry for solar energy generation. Unlike conventional glass modules, which are heavy, rigid and typically installed at an angle on racks, PowerFLEX BIPV modules are lightweight and flexible, and installed flat directly on the roofing surface. This allows the modules to cover a greater amount of rooftop space that, depending on the location of the building, can equate to 50-100 percent more power and energy per rooftop than a tilted solar array. This advantage is particularly acute at higher latitudes.

"At Global Solar, we recognized that the building industry has not been able to fully optimize the real estate on the rooftop with solar solutions currently available," said Dr. Jeff Britt, CEO of Global Solar Energy. "We worked closely with roofing professionals when we designed the PowerFLEX BIPV, and their experience mattered to us. Leveraging their input, we now offer a high-powered module that will create the most powerful rooftops in the world."

Industry research is showing that the BIPV market is heating up. Lux Research reported that by 2013 the BIPV market will reach $5.7 billion. Solutions that will succeed are ones that meet the power, design and cost requirements set by the building and roofing industries.

About Global Solar Energy

Since its founding in 1996, Global Solar has emerged as the leader in flexible Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide (CIGS) thin film solar cell technology. CIGS thin film technology is lightweight and highly efficient. Global Solar's thin film solar cells are incorporated into a variety of applications ranging from lightweight portable solar chargers, traditional glass solar modules, and now building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) products and designs.

Global Solar manufactures CIGS cells in two full scale facilities in Tucson, Arizona, USA and in Berlin, Germany, and distributes worldwide.

Photos/MultimediaGallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6411927&lang=en
 

Copyright 2010 Business Wire, Inc.

Business Wire

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NSF-FUNDED PROJECT AIMS TO GRAB MORE SUN FOR SOLAR CELLS

States News Service
States News Service
August 30, 2010

The following information was released by the University of Oregon:

Researchers from three institutions are uniting under a three-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation to boost the juice of solar cells.

Under the project researchers will seek to design new semiconductor structures that "will overcome the current limit on efficiency of most solar cells in which each light particle captured by the sun only provides one electron of electrical current," said Stephen Kevan, head of physics at the University of Oregon and the project's principle investigator. "If our efforts succeed, we will significantly improve solar cell efficiency using environmentally benign materials."

The grant, which begins Sept. 1, comes from the NSF's Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences as part of its Solar Energy Initiative.

Geraldine Richmond, professor of chemistry at the UO, and Malgorzata Peszynsk, professor of mathematics at Oregon State University, are co-principal investigators on the project. An expert in the growth of thin films, Angus Rockett, associate head of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, also will have an important role in the project.

Multiple laboratories at the UO, OSU and Illinois will be used in device design, development and optimization, including the Center for Advanced Materials Characterization in Oregon (CAMCOR), which is located in the UO's underground Lokey Laboratories. "We are exploring promising combinations of semiconducting materials with appropriate band alignment and growth characteristics to promote more efficient impact ionization," Kevan said.

The goal is to design nanostructured semiconducting materials that convert and channel sunlight into useful electrical energy rather than into waste heat. The principle behind the new process, called heterojunction-assisted impact ionization, is that shorter wavelength photons will be absorbed to capture a higher ratio of electrons, providing for higher electrical currents and a reduction of energy loss.

Three additional collaborators in the project are: Dave Cohen, professor of physics at the UO, who, like Rockett, has extensive experience working on photovoltaic materials including thin films; Janet Tate, a solid-state physicist at OSU with expertise in growing thin-film electronic and optical materials; and Guenter Schneider is a solid-state theorist at OSU who will work closely with Peszynska to model potential new devices and predict new target structures.

Kevan, Cohen, Richmond and Tate also are member faculty of the Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center (Oregon BEST), a nonprofit organization established by the Oregon Legislature to commercialize and transform sustainable built environment and renewable energy research into on-the-ground products, services and jobs. In 2009, Oregon BEST funding established the Photovoltaics Characterization Laboratory, a shared user facility that is part of the Support Network for Research and Innovation in Solar Energy (SuNRISE), a collaborative solar energy laboratory based at the UO.

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Guest Post: Welcome to Light a candle for our fallen soliders!

Guest Post: Support Fallen Soliders

Hi Scotty,
Thank you for joining the cause Light a candle for our fallen soliders!
We are very excited to have you as a part of our community. Right now, we need your help to reach our goal of 500,000 members so the most important thing you can do to help our cause is to invite your friends to join too.
Help us reach our goal of 500,000 members today:
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Thanks for joining the cause and taking action!

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Dear Scotty- Scotts Contracting,

Thank you for using the Natural Resources Defense Council's Action Center to contact your representatives and decision
makers.

==========
About NRDC
==========

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a nonprofit environmental organization with 1.3 million members and online activists and a staff of scientists, attorneys and environmental experts. Our mission is to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and ensure a safe and healthy environment for all living things.

For more information about NRDC or how to become a member of NRDC, please contact us at:

Natural Resources Defense Council
40 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011
212-727-4511 (voice) / 212-727-1773 (fax)
Email: nrdcaction@nrdc.org
http://www.nrdc.org/

Also visit:
BioGems -- Saving Endangered Wild Places
A project of the Natural Resources Defense Council
http://www.savebiogems.org/

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Guest Post: Cool Weather- Energy Saving Laundry Device

Cool Weather Energy Savings

WANT TO SAVE MONEY AND ENERGY!?!

Have you ever looked at your dryer vent in the wintertime? A lot of heat is released everytime you use your dryer.

The Dryernet from Demo-airnet is now in Washington, mo. The Dryernet is a system that saves the heat from your dryer and releases it into your house during the cooler months. Depending on how much the clothes dryer is used, an average family of four could save about $20.00 per month on their heating bill. Only to be used on electric dryers.

Install the Dryernet on the air vent for the clothes dryer and is vented into the laundry room, garage, utility room, or wherever you want free heat. Normally the HOT air is vented to the outside because with the screen for the dryer a lot of lint and dust escapes through the exhaust. With the Dryernet, the air is further filtered down to .5 microns hardly enough for you to smell the laundry smell.

Guest Post Photo: Dryernet

The advantage of the Dryernet is that the user retains heat that would normally be vented outside and also releases humidity into the house which is much needed during the cooler seasons In most cases it also reduces drying time do to increased airflow.

To use the Dryernet simply disconnect your dryer vent hose from the vent pipe and pull the Dryernet over the end of the pipe. Pull the bungee cord firm around the pipe and use the clip to keep the bungee cord tight. You can make a nice frame for the hose and Dryernet or just lay the hose over the dryer as the picture shows. Use the dryer as you would anytime and after about 20-30 uses, take the Dryernet off the hose, put it into the washer and wash it. Put it back on wet and use your dryernet with the next washer load and it will dry. During warm weather, simply remove the Dryernet and reconnect your vent hose to the outside vent.

Purchase the Dryernet in Washington, MO at Bubba's Shrimp and Seafood Market, 216 Elm Street. Bubba's is the only place to purchase the Dryernet. Or go online at dryernet.com

By mail order; send a check to Bubba's Shrimp, 216 Elm St, Washington, MO 63090. Call 636-388-2808

E-mail at dryernet@gmail.com

The cost is $32.99 plus $3.25 shipping and handling.

If mailed to a Missouri address, add sales tax of $2.50.

There is a 4 week money back guarantee.

Check us out at dryernet.com--

Guest Post Provided Free of Charge by Scotty, Scott's Contracting
scottscontracting@gmail.com
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