New policies like the California Solar Initiative and SB 1 may have accounted for a record-breaking attendance at the largest solar event in the history of the solar business in the United States.
Last week Tyler Hamilton missed attending Solar Power 2006 conference in San Jose, but along with the Renewable Energy Access does provide a good summary plus links to additional reports.
Solar Conference Overview
- ATS Automation’s soon-to-be-spun-off solar business, Photowatt Technologies, has entered into a 10-year silicon supply contract with Deutsche Solar AG, which will begin supplying solar-grade multi-crystalline polysilicon wafers in the first half of 2009. This amount should support the manufacture of about 15 megawatts of solar power products per year. It doesn’t solve all of Photowatt’s silicon sourcing issues, but it helps — particularly as the company positions itself for an initial public offering.
- Evergreen Solar saw its shares soar 17 per cent today after announcing a four-year, $100-million contract to sell its solar products.
- Google plans to install 1.6 megawatts worth of solar panels atop its Mountain View, Calif.-based headquarters by next spring, likely making it the largest corporate installation in North America.
- SunPower says it has increased the efficiency of its silicon cells to 22 per cent from 20 per cent, and that it can fit more individual cells within a standard panel. These improvements apparently result in a 43 per cent increase in power from its next-generation panels, which will reportedly be in mass production sometime next year.
Solar Conference Links
- Cleantech Blog
- RenewableEnergyAccess.com podcast, which managed to snag an interview with venture capitalist Vinod Khosla.
- Also worth reading is the San Jose Mercury News also had a short story
- Red Herring has an article that discusses “Three Huge Solar Trends”
- Another piece about Khosla and his belief that centralized, utility-scale solar that uses concentrator technology is where the greatest opportunity lies.
And, while on the solar subject, Tyler Hamilton also relayed two interesting pieces from CNET’s News.com:
- The first about new solar technology from Sharp
- The second one putting the huge growth in solar cell / panel / module manufacturing into perspective.
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For all you naysayers (like CNET) who doubted that solar energy would ever become a mainstream phenomenon, Mike Yamamoto offer two words: Home Depot. The home-improvement empire has partnered with BP Solar to provide solar-power systems.
According to Treehugger services include free home consultation, installation and follow-up inspection. The Home Depot solar page also links to a national database of state incentives for renewable energy and a special calculator so you can estimate your potential savings.
“We,” speaking for CNET, Mike quips, “also had our doubts about this whole Internet thing.”
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[...] Concentrating photovoltaics was one of the technologies featured at the recent solar conference in San Jose, California. Sharp Corporation displayed its new system. A fresnel lens (like the one used in lighthouses) focuses sunlight onto super efficient solar cells. While more expensive, the multi junction semiconductors are about twice as efficient as conventional silicon cells. [...]