thin-film

Sharp to pay near $200M to Dell, others to settle TFT case

Sharp will pay a total of $198.5 million to Dell and two other companies a part of an out-of-court settlement reached over the Japanese tech company's thin-film-transistor, or TFT business.

It's not clear from initial reports which companies are invovled or even what the suit pertained to. AT&T and Nokia both sued Toshiba a few years back and are likely the two unnamed companies paid in the settlement.

However, the news likely relates to last week's news that Toshiba, Samsung, LG, and Sharp colluded to fix prices of LCD panels.

Sharp said after "… Read more

DOE-backed Abound Solar cuts factory line

Abound Solar, a startup that received a Department of Energy loan, said this week that it will shut down one of its production lines and accelerate plans to make a more competitive solar panel.

As part of the change, the company will cut 180 jobs in Colorado, where it is based. Abound Solar makes solar panels with thin film cells made from cadmium telluride, the same material used by First Solar and General Electric.

In late 2010, Abound Solar secured a $400 million loan guarantee from the DOE to boost its production in Longmont, Colo., and build a new factory … Read more

It's raining protons

Google+ finally allows nicknames, Priceline is killing Shatner, and a solar radiation storm crashes communication systems.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Next-gen solar tech makes big leagues

A solar farm in California will be the largest to use an emerging type of thin-film solar technology, another competitive force bringing down the price of solar.

Japan-based Solar Frontier will supply solar panels built with solar cells that use a combination of copper, indium, and selenide. The project, which will produce 150 megawatts at peak times, will be in Kearn County, California and is expected to be completed next June.

Project developer Enxco and Solar Frontier said the thin-film technology has a favorable year-round energy production, not only during its peak output. The technology is "compelling to major … Read more

Thin-film solar startup Stion heads to Korea

Solar startup Stion has found deep pockets in Asia.

The Silicon Valley-based company today said it has raised $130 million from Korea-based thin-film solar equipment maker Avaco, Korean private-equity funds, and venture capital firms. Last year, Stion took a $50 million investment from Taiwan Semiconductor as part of a larger series D round.

With today's funding, Avaco and Stion will collaborate to develop next-generation thin-film solar equipment designed to boost cell efficiency and factory output. It will also create a subsidiary in Korea and build a factory to serve Asian markets.

Stion is one of many solar companies founded … Read more

GE to build thin-film solar factory in Colorado

General Electric announced yesterday it will spend $600 million to build a solar factory in Colorado, giving it the means to re-enter the solar business in force.

The company said the factory in Aurora will have the capacity to produce at an annual rate of 400 megawatts, or enough to power 80,000 U.S. homes. It will create 355 jobs in Colorado after completion and another 100 solar-related jobs at GE's research facility in upstate New York.

Production will start early next year of solar panels with cadmium telluride thin-film solar cells, the same thin-film material used by … Read more

Solyndra bankruptcy was disaster waiting to happen

news analysis Solar manufacturer Solyndra filed for bankruptcy protection today, capping a stunning reversal for the government-backed company in a drama that's raising questions about U.S. industrial policy in green technology.

The Chapter 11 filing follows Solyndra's decision last week to shut down its Fremont, Calif., factory and lay off about 1,100 employees and contractors, saying it could not compete with low-cost manufacturers in other countries.

Solyndra is being held up as a case of the federal government not doing its homework picking companies to back in an effort to create jobs.

But is there some … Read more

Harsh lessons from Evergreen Solar flame-out

If there's a lesson to be had in the wrenching downfall of Evergreen Solar, it's this: Even Apple doesn't try to do everything itself.

For two days now, the green-tech industry--and more than a few politicians who had put their credibility on the line to support it--have been wringing their hands over Evergreen, which on Monday announced it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will seek to sell off its assets to pay off hundreds of millions of dollars to creditors. Today Evergreen said that Nasdaq informed the company that its stock will be delisted next week. … Read more

Alta Devices lifts curtain on high-efficiency solar cell

Low-profile solar start-up Alta Devices today will detail a technique it claims can deliver record solar cell efficiency, a step toward making solar cheaper than fossil fuels.

Executives from the Silicon Valley company, which has raised at least $72 million in funding, will present technical papers today at the IEEE's Photovoltaic Specialist Conference in Seattle on how it has set a new mark in converting sunlight to electricity. Among its investors is Bill Joy, a Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers partner and famed technologist.

In tests, engineers achieved 27.6 percent efficiency last year and later hit 28.2 … Read more

Solar CIGS reach 18.7 percent efficiency

Swiss scientists have broken an energy conversion efficiency record for flexible thin-film CIGS solar cells, Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, announced last week.

In collaboration with the Swiss solar start-up Flisom, Empa has achieved an 18.7 percent efficiency for CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) flexible solar cells, which the lab says was made possible by mounting them on a polymer substrate. This breaks Empa's record of 17.6 percent when mounting the CIGS on steel foil substrates, according to the Swiss lab.

Solar efficiency is the amount of electricity per square inch that … Read more