CSIRO and Dyesol have completed the first stage of their joint project developing higher performance dyes for dye solar cells (DSC). The first six months of the programme has seen Dyesol build a research-scale assembly and testing facility at CSIRO’s Newcastle-based centre, in south-east Australia.
In a bid to kick-start the photovoltaics sector in the Netherlands, Van der Valk Solar Systems, the manufacturer of components for the horticultural industry, has joined forces with GH Solar. So far, solar progress in the country has been slow, due to lack of a renewable subsidy structure; however the introduction of a feed-in tariff is expected in the near future.
China Sunergy and Pythagoras Solar have signed a five-year contract to develop, manufacture and market BIPV products in China. The agreement runs from 2010 until 2015 and will see Pythagoras Solar produce photovoltaic glass units and China Sunergy supply up to 75MW of solar concentrator cells as they attempt to capitalise on the growing demand for BIPV products.
Ascent Solar has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with 'The Energy and Resource Institute' (TERI), based in New Delhi, India. Under the terms of the agreement, TERI will perform testing and performance evaluation of Ascent's flexible thin-film CIGS modules as well as looking at the feasibility of including these modules for TERI's flagship program 'Lighting a Billion Lives' (LaBL).
Another CIGS thin-film PV manufacturer has garnered certification for its flexible modules. San Jose-based SoloPower has achieved IEC 61646 and 61730 approvals to go along with the UL 1703 it announced earlier this year, allowing the company to sell its rooftop-focused products in the U.S. and Europe. SoloPower claims to be the first among its peers to obtain both IEC certifications for its flex panels.
Organic photovoltaics developer Solarmer Energy has achieved the highest conversion efficiency recorded so far for a plastic OPV champion cell—7.9%. The aperture-area test results, recently certified by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, represent an improvement over independent exams conducted a few months ago at Newport Corp.’s Technology and Application Center’s PV Lab, where cell efficiencies of 7.6% and module efficiencies of 3.9% were recorded.
Earlier this month, the two main bodies in the Italian renewable energy world, Gruppo Imprese Fotovoltaiche Italiane (GIFI), the Italian Photovoltaic Association, and Federazione Nazionale Imprese Elettrotecniche ed Elettroniche (ANIE), proposed a new set of Feed in Tariffs (FiT) for Italy, which are planned for 2011, according to a Barclays Solar report.
