So today we make both better silicon for solar cells, and better steel for oil exploration.
FORBES: Buckeye Oil Billions Will Unleash an Ohio Manufacturing Tech Boom
The firm also sells imaging and infrared detector products that SunPower makes using its thin-wafer manufacturing process for solar cells.
Most of the challenge, as we often see for solar cells, is just a matter of improving the energy conversion rate.
As the use of clean and renewable energy grows, the demand for solar cells and modules is likely to receive a boost.
Bagnall is himself trying to nanoengineer surfaces for solar cells by mimicking the surface of moth eyes, which possess excellent antireflective surfaces.
Researchers in the solar cell industry have known for a while that one potential avenue for improving solar cells is the use of carbon nanotubes.
Meanwhile, other companies, such as GCL-Poly Energy, which is among the largest maker of silicon and silicon wafers (for making solar cells) in the world, are willing to expand production and lose money for a while in order to gain market share, Mehta said.
FORBES: Report: Solar Panel Supply Will Far Exceed Demand Beyond 2012
For traditionally solar cells have been made out of the ingots rejected by the computer industry.
FORBES: Noahpinion's Two Errors About Free Trade: Yes, Unilateral Free Trade Is The Answer
Suntech faces a 35.97% tariff for bringing solar cells from China and assembling them into panels in Arizona.
FORBES: Suntech Cuts Back Solar Production, Lays Off 50 In Arizona
In fact, no one at all disagrees with the need to reduce these tariffs, for the solar cells themselves are coming down in price swiftly.
People linger delightedly at the Hotel Habitat by Enric Ruiz-Geli with Cloud 9 Acconci Studio and Ruy Ohtake, a miniature simulacrum of a proposed four-star hotel for Barcelona covered with a web of 5, 000 winking light-emitting diodes, or LEDS, powered by solar cells for a nighttime display of glowing colors.
The Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K760 is stylish and compact with onboard solar cells for hassle-free charging.
ENGADGET: Logitech outs Apple-friendly Wireless Solar Keyboard K760, we go hands-on
Its pilot line in California will supply solar cells for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used by the military.
FORBES: Strategic Investor To Green Tech Startups: Get A Grip
Our base estimates project that the production cost of solar cells for SunPower will steadily decline through our forecast period.
FORBES: Polysilicon Price Pop Casts Shadow On SunPower's Profits
Applications for Evergreen's solar cells and systems include highway call boxes, microwave stations, street and billboard lighting and off-grid rural electrification.
The good news: There are a growing number of very competent companies manufacturing solar cells for efficient conversion of this sunlight to electricity.
And, with its environmentally friendly PVC-free construction, fully recyclable box and onboard solar cells for charging, this keyboard is designed to minimize its environmental footprint.
ENGADGET: Logitech outs Apple-friendly Wireless Solar Keyboard K760, we go hands-on
"These results open the potential for visibly transparent polymer solar cells as add-on components of portable electronics, smart windows and building-integrated photovoltaics and in other applications, " said study leader Yang Yang, a UCLA professor of materials science and engineering, who also is director of the Nano Renewable Energy Center at California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI).
ENGADGET: UCLA creates transparent solar cell, dreams of current generating windows
Some of the latest solar cells, for instance, can covert sunlight into electricity with an efficiency of more than 40%.
SunPower manufactures and distributes silicon-based solar cells and also produces solar power products for installation on residential and commercial units.
There was a mixed showing for German solar power companies Q-Cells and Solon, after both alluded to difficulties in trading in the first quarter and for the rest of the year.
So the next step for Sol Voltaics will be to produce solar cells topped with gallium arsenide nanowires to further demonstrate its technology.
FORBES: A Swedish Solar Startup's Nanowires Promise To Deliver A Big Energy Boost
Silicon-based solar cells have been optimised for sunlight.
ECONOMIST: A new type of cell may bring ��solar�� energy indoors
In what could prove to be a major breakthrough for solar technology, engineers at Stanford University have successfully fabricated thin, flexible solar cells that are able to be peeled and attached to almost any surface.
Multi-junction solar cells say, fuel cells or, possibly, new aluminium alloys for windmill blades so they can work in higher speed winds.
Meanwhile, the cost of making traditional crystalline cells is dropping, making it easier for companies like Q-Cells and Suntech to compete with First Solar on price.
With this combination, 4% power-conversion efficiency for solution-processed and visibly transparent polymer solar cells has been achieved.
ENGADGET: UCLA creates transparent solar cell, dreams of current generating windows
Most of the solar panels made today use silicon for the cells and glass for protection from breakage.
FORBES: Solar Startup SoloPower Undergoes Restructuring, Cuts Workforce
One producer of crystalline polysilicon cells for photovoltaic modules, JA Solar (JASO, 6.45) , looks dirt-cheap even after bouncing 197% from its bottom.
One specific material he is working on may be suitable as a replacement technology for photovoltaic cells, one that promises to be one-hundredth of the cost of existing solar cells, which can overcome whatever efficiency loss it represents.
应用推荐