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Solar company HelioVolt and Architectural Glass & Aluminum on Tuesday announced a partnership to produce glass windows capable of generating electricity.

HelioVolt is one of several new solar manufacturers using different materials to produce thin-film solar cells.

HelioVolt's solar cell which it will put into solar panels and embe into building materials.

(Credit: HelioVolt)

The company intends to make solar cells for rooftop panels and later get into building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), where cells are embedded onto roof shingles, blinds, awnings, or other building components.

The deal with Architectural Glass & Aluminum calls for the companies to design solar-enabled curtain walls, the glass facades on the outside of buildings, or architectural glass in the interior of buildings.

Citing a Department of Energy study, HelioVolt said that solar cells integrated into buildings can produce about half of a building's energy usage.

Last week, another thin-film solar producer, Global Solar Energy, announced a partnership with Dow to make solar shingles.

Another company doing solar-enabled roofing is DRI Energy, a division of a construction company that has developed roof shingles and solar cells that glue onto flat roofs of commercial buildings.

In its coverage, Greentech Media pointed out that BIPV has a number of technical challenges, making the days of power-generating windows a few years away.

Specifically, solar cells typically have a shorter warranty--at 20 or 25 years--than many building materials. Thin-film cells made from CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide), as HelioVolt is making, corrode more in water than traditional silicon cells.

Although solar panels can cut electrical bills, there are drawbacks. They cost a lot to install and are incredibly ugly.

Akeena Solar is trying to get around both those problems with what it says it a better rack. The company has developed a completely integrated system, called Andalay, which includes a solar panel, the frame and the wiring that it says cuts down installation costs by around 50 percent. Integration also reduces the number of individual parts by 70 percent, says CEO Barry Cinnamon, who has been toiling in solar since the 70s.

Although the integrated system costs more than a conventional solar panel, overall costs are reduced by around ten percent, he said. Installation costs, after all, are about half the cost of a solar system.

"And the aesthetics are way better," he asserted. "You get this nice rectangular look. It looks like a skylight."

Suntech Power Holdings, the rapidly growing solar panel maker from China, and Kyocera have both licensed the technology. Akeena makes the rack and then ships it tothem. Both companies then wrap the rack around their solar panels and then ship the finished product back to Akeena. Akeena, however, is also letting Suntech sell the complete system to other solar installers outside of the U.S.

NEW YORK--Solar company Konarka wants to bring plastics to life with the sun.

Konarka has developed technology to create rolls of plastic that can convert light to electricity--a design that will result in solar power being embedded in everything from flashing Coke bottles to wireless sensors, the company claims.

Earlier this month, Konarka said that it has demonstrated the use of inkjet printing to manufacture its solar cells. And at a recent investor conference here, chairman and founder Howard Berke described Konarka's longer-term plans to embed small solar plastic cells in hundreds of products.

In the second half of this year, Berke said, Konarka will make its first shipments to customers and will announce the location of a factory.

Konarka's roll-to-roll manufacturing creates solar cells on plastic.

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET Networks)

Initially the company intends to make portable solar chargers for gadgets as well as self-powered sensors, lights, and smart cards. Farther down the road, it plans to make solar windows and power-generating cloth.

In four years, Berke said, the company intends to have products for the building-integrated photovoltaics (PV) market with "bifacial cells," for placement on windows, that can convert electricity from both sides.

It is also working on a project, sponsored by the Department of Defense, to make fibers that can be woven into clothing, he said.

"You'll be able to wear, carry, integrate PV," said Berke. "Wherever plastics occur, you'll have PV."

But some solar industry watchers have become skeptical about whether this technology will ever live up to its promise. Konarka, founded in 2001, has raised several rounds of capital and taken government grants but still doesn't have a commercial product.

Plastic solar cells have the advantage of being flexible, unlike traditional silicon, but they're not nearly as efficient as rooftop panels.

Konarka's cells, which are made with a roll-to-roll manufacturing process, convert about 5 percent of the light that hits them into electricity, whereas typically solar panels with silicon cells are 16 percent to 20 percent efficient.

But its organic photovoltaic cells can convert low light, can be tuned for specific wavelengths, and can work even when the light hits at a low angle, Berke said.

"We see this as next-generation thin-film PV technology and not competing with silicon," he said.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Konarka Technologies is a solar company that specializes in organic photovoltaics, solar cells made from plastics.

Those cells are not as efficient or long-lasting as silicon, which is used in most rooftop solar panels. But they are lighter, flexible and can be integrated into a range of products, from consumer electronics to fibers. Konarka has even suggested putting its plastic on soft drink bottles in stores for advertising.

Konarka's organic photovoltaic cells are like films that it hopes will be integrated into a wide range of products.

(Credit: Konarka Technologies)

So when will we start to see this new generation of consumer-friendly solar cells?

Konarka is now in commercial prototyping its solar cells and expects to have products that use those films by the second half of next year, said Howard Berke, the company's chairman and co-founder.

Rather than bring end products to market itself, Konarka's strategy is to partner with other "application" companies, he said. Berke spoke here on Monday at the Lux Research conference on nanotechnology.

Last week, the company announced a partnership with Air Products to make windows that generate electricity using Konarka's solar films. Berke said to expect announcements with a blind manufacturer and a battery company in the coming months.

The idea is to allow these partners to integrate solar cells into their products in compelling ways, rather than try to compete with solar panel makers on cost per watt.

"We're not selling high efficiency and not lower prices. It's the patterns, colors, the aesthetic attributes that make a product more valuable than just the power it produces," Berke said.

With organic photovoltaics, the efficiency of converting sunlight to electricity of its cells is about 5 percent (most silicon panels are in the 15 percent to 20 percent range). Berke said that he expects they will ultimately approach silicon's efficiency. Organic photovoltaics work well in a broader spectrum of light than silicon as well.

Konarka already does a lot of work for the military. But after raising $98 million, its biggest payoff--if the technology works as promised--could be in consumer products.

Lumeta on Tuesday announced a manufacturing deal with Chinese solar panel producer Suntech for Lumeta's solar roof tiles.

Under the deal, Suntech will supply solar modules for Lumeta's building-integrated photovoltaic roof tiles.

A power-producing roof.

(Credit: Lumeta)

Lumeta's Solar S Tile, launched earlier this year, looks just like terracotta concrete roof tiles but are covered with a solar cell that generates electricity. Lumeta, a subsidiary of DRI Companies, announced the supply deal at the Solar World 2007 industry conference.

The solar industry is pursuing building-integrated photovoltaics as a way to reduce the cost of solar electric installations.

One advantage of solar roof tiles is that they don't look any different from a regular roof. However, it is unclear whether they are as economical as traditional solar panels.