Photovoltaic Conference and Exhibition Preview 2010

Significant photovoltaic (PV) conferences and events in 2010. Suffering from PV conference overload?

In chronological order, here are the PV conferences I am interested in following or covering in 2010. As in the past, my focus remains technical conferences and business to business trade shows, not regional marketing or sales events. I am biased towards the United States and Europe and really need to branch out and explore events in Asia and Japan. Maybe I will find an opportunity in 2010. Read More >>

EU PVSEC News and Happy Holidays!

23rd and 24th EU PVSEC (European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition) Conference Manuscripts available online. 25th EU PVSEC and WCPEC-5 Call for Papers Open!

In a December EU PVSEC Newsletter, WIP-Renewable Energies provided an update on the combined 25th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition and 5th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC-5). As I tweeted last week: WIP: All Conference Manuscripts presented at the 23rd and 24th EU PVSEC available online now! http://bit.ly/8h3WJH #PV #Solar Ed: Cool deal! I was excited by the immediate availability of 23rd and the 24th EU PVSEC scientific papers for download at EU PVSEC Proceedings. The papers are searchable by subject, authors, institutions, keywords, or events, and a unique digital identifier (DOI code) enables clear citability online Read More >>

Applied Materials Solar SunFab: By the Numbers

820000 quarter sized equivalent photovoltaic (PV) modules?

With “KSK Surya Photovoltaic Venture Selects SunFab Solar Panel Production Lines for 150MW Project in India”, Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) ended an almost one year three month drought since the last SunFab deal with Moncada Energy Group s.r.l. per “Moncada Enters Solar Energy Market with Contract for Applied Materials' SunFab Thin Film Line”. Should this be viewed as a positive sign of at least a slow recovery from the Great Recession and credit crunch? Perhaps a better question is how have Applied Materials SunFab customers fared to date? In “VLSI Research ranks Top 10 PV Manufacturing Equipment Suppliers for 2008”, I didn’t calculate the MegaWatt-peak (MWp) cumulative production of Applied Materials SunFab customers. At Intersolar

Solar Light Flashes: 24th EU PVSEC Edition

Select Photovoltaic News Tidbits from the 24th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition.

It's been like forever (1 year, 8 months, 10 days) since my last Solar Light Flashes. I've always planned to resurrect the haphazard post. Twitter delayed the return but sometimes 140 characters are insufficient. centrotherm photovoltaics AG (ETR:CTN) Only the Photovoltaic (PV) Industry plasters roadmaps or manufacturing costs on exhibition stand signage. The last official centrotherm CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) news was “Success in the thin film division: centrotherm photovoltaics achieves 13 percent efficiency for mass production”. Tom Cheyney chatted with centrotherm in “EU PVSEC short takes: Talking CIGS turnkey, eyeballing a Nanosolar panel, and more” at PV-tech.org. Read More >>

EU PVSEC: iSuppli 2009 Photovoltaic Forecast Wrong

German 2009 PV market demand defies iSuppli doom and gloom forecast. iSuppli, your low ball 2009 Photovoltaic (PV) Forecast (Figure left, Source: iSuppli) of 3.9 GW (GigaWatts) needs a drastic revision upward.

The 24th EU PVSEC (European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition) was buzzing about how the German market is booming for solar installs in the later half of 2009. Falling solar module prices and the unadjusted 2009 Feed-in Tariffs promise low double digit returns on PV investments. The tide is not lifting all boats in a buyers market, but certain PV manufacturers are claiming to be sold out of solar modules again. In fact, besides overloaded installers, the utility EON does not think they can grid

Virtual 6th European PV Industry Forum

Video of the SET for 2020 Executive Summary

On Wednesday midway through the 24th EU PVSEC, I attended the 6th European Industry Forum titled Solar Photovoltaic Electricity: A mainstream power source in Europe by 2020. The PV Industry Forum has become a ritual since my first in Dresden. After the introduction, my Canon FS11 camcorder was ready to record the excellent tag team presentation of the SET for 2020 Executive Summary by Dr. Winfried Hoffmann and Anton Milner. Was it rehearsed or have they just presented SET for 2020 many times before? The almost 35 minute presentation is split into four

EU PVSEC: Sol3g Update

Concentrator PhotoVoltaic (CPV) firm Sol3g absorbed by Abengoa Solar.

When a quick search revealed a comment regarding Sol3g on the “CPV CEO Hotseat (Updated Oct 7)” Green Light blog post by Eric Wesoff for Greentech Media, my next post became clear. Already owning a 25% stake in Sol3g, S.L., Abengoa Solar, S.A. acquired additional Sol3g founder shares and gained 78%+ majority control in 2008. This July, not long after Intersolar 2009 in Munich, Abengoa Solar decided to layoff most of the Sol3g staff (~90 people) including CEO Ricard Pardell leaving about five (5) people. As the above commenter noted, Mr. Pardell is another CPV CEO Hotseat veteran. I observed something might be amiss when my follow up emails after Intersolar regarding the GiraSol GS700 and Read More >>

24th EU PVSEC: Closing Session Videos

Photovoltaic Technical Highlights and Industry Summary on SET for 2020.

When I posted the 24th EU PVSEC: Photovoltaic Technical Highlights, I planned to include a YouTube video of Dr. Heinz Ossenbrink's presentation. However, YouTube enforced their rigid 10 minute length policy even though the file size was well below 2GB (GigaBytes). So in two parts courtesy of iMovie ‘09, the videos below capture Dr. Ossenbrink’s presentation in his own words. Once I had a perch established at stage right for effective recording, I also videoed the next speaker, Dr. Winfried Hoffman in his role as EPIA (European Photovoltaic Industry Association) President, present the Industry Summary of

24th EU PVSEC: Photovoltaic Technical Highlights

[Hamburg, Germany] It isn’t an EU PVSEC Closing Session without Dr. Heinz Ossenbrink, Technical Programme Chairman, presenting his Conference Technical Highlights. Dr. Ossenbrink’s presentation is captured as a Picasa slideshow above with the text via manual entry below for those using online search. (Some) Highlights of the 24th European Photovoltaic Conference and Exhibition Hamburg, Germany 21-25 September 2009 Dr. Heinz Ossenbrink Technical Programme Chairman European Commission, DG Joint Research Centre Ispra, Italy Advanced Photovoltaics · New Triple Junction Concentrator cell record 41.1% @ 450x. (Fraunhofer ISE, DE) Spectrolab 41.6% (Last Conference: 40.8%) · Tandem Cells Using Quantum Dots All QD-Devices Mostly SiO2 but also Si3N4. SiC (Green/ UNSW, AU) · Strain-balanced

24th EU PVSEC: Photovoltaic Poster Award Winners

[Hamburg, Germany] 24th EU PVSEC Poster Award Winners Group Photo Bonus Video of Poster Award Ceremony now appended. Poster Award Chairman Dr. Arnulf Jäger-Waldau mastered the Ceremony of Poster Awards during the closing session of the 24th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition. 991 or 92% of the 1081 posters accepted were presented as Visual Presentations at the conference. After thanking all the reviewers who gave their opinion judging the posters, Dr. Jäger-Waldau thought the Thin Film Solar Cells topic colleagues deserved a prize for perfect attendance in three out of four poster sessions. Two (2) Posters each were awarded in the topic areas of Advanced Photovoltaics, Wafer-Based Silicon Solar Cells and Materials Technology, and Thin Film Solar Cells, one (1) poster each was awarded in Components… Read More >>