News Blog

The next solar panel could be a window.

Konarka Technologies and Air Products have received a grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a transparent, flexible solar panel that could be placed on a piece of glass or integrated into a window.

Konarka specializes in organic photovoltaics. These are complex molecules that can harvest portions of the infrared and visible light spectrum and turn the energy into sunlight. Organic photovoltaic panels don't last as long as silicon panels and 't aren't as efficient as silicon or other types of panels. But they can be transparent and flexible, allowing them to be placed unobtrusively on a lot of surfaces. Konarka also has an unobtrusive wire grid.

In the alliance, Konarka will work on the organic photovoltaics, while Air Products will try to tweak its conductive polymers (i.e. plastic that can conduct electricity) for this application.

If it works, it could be huge. But that's a big if. Konarka, which derived out of work conducted by Nobel prize winner Alan Heeger, has been around for years and raised $105 million in private investment funds. Unfortunately, it has also yet to have a breakthrough commercial application. Revenue mostly comes from grants and engineering services. The company recently got a new CEO.

Among other projects, it is also working on developing a polymer solar cell for recharging cell phones and other consumer electronics products. The idea is to integrate the solar cell. In February, Konarka investors said they hoped they would be able to announce an alliance for consumer electronics later this year.

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.

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.

WALTHAM, Mass.--Researchers working to equip an increasingly digitized soldier are seeking solutions to their tough demands in the commercial clean-tech sector.

Last week, I attended a presentation in which experts from the U.S. Army's Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass., detailed their very stringent needs.

The Natick center experts talked about their specialties--combat feeding, shelter and clothing--and how integral energy is to those areas of development. Although the lab develops its own products, researchers favor commercially available--and viable--technologies.

That's where the growing investor and entrepreneurial interest in clean tech comes in.

Problems like short battery life, which is a nuisance to the average laptop user, can be brutal or even life-threatening to a soldier who now relies on electronics to do his or her job.

One real-life statistic thrown out during the discussion: A soldier carried 648 AA batteries for a five-day mission. That's a lot of extra weight. And the demands for battery life are only going up as the amount of electronic gear soldiers carry around increases. Similarly, getting fuel to soldiers is a major cost and vulnerability.

Here are some of the technologies the Natick labs is exploring, most of which focus on mobility:

-Tents with thin-film solar cells integrated in them. A 2-kilowatt tent with a PV roof is now in testing in Fort Bliss, Md.

-Rechargeable batteries that are lighter and charge faster. The Army is exploring a wide range of options, including advanced lithium ion batteries, solar rechargers and high-density fuel cells.

-LED lighting integrated into tent roofs. This has the advantage of minimizing the wiring required to set up tent lighting. And compared to fluorescent lighting, LED lighting better resembles daylight, which has a positive psychological effect on people.

-Insulation. Keeping tents at a constant temperature is a huge problem, and bulky insulation often gets discarded because it's too much trouble to install or transport. The Army lab at Natick is looking at using Aerogels--essentially an insulating blanket--that can be built into fabric.

-Portable kitchen stoves that use cogeneration--generators that create heat and electricity. This basic technology is already used for heating in industrial buildings and in the consumer arena.

-Solar clothing. The idea is to use organic solar cells that are less efficient but work well in low light and, since they are solid state, can be woven into clothing. The photo to the left is a proof-of-concept.

Nature hates a vacuum, and apparently so do solar installation companies.

A number of solar installers with national ambitions have or are preparing plans to open operations in Colorado. Standard Renewable Energy, which is trying to create a nationwide network of energy efficiency consultants (see earlier story here), has linked up with installers in the state, said CEO John Berger. Besides solar, Standard also advises customers on light bulbs and heating systems. (Berger used to run the East Coast trading desk at Enron, but there's no probationary ankle collar on him. The East Coast desk was not the one implicated with blackouts in California.)

Meanwhile, Lyndon Rive, CEO of Solar City is moving to the state, he told me. Barely a year old, Solar City is the largest installer in California and recently raised $21 million in venture capital funds. Solar City's gig is group installing: It signs up 50 or more homeowners in new subdivisions to go solar. The buyers enjoy volume discounts and cheaper installation costs as a result. Installation is about half the cost of getting a solar system.

You can expect to see Conergy in the state too. The German solar installer has opened operations in the U.S. By 2008, Conergy wants to generate half its revenue from outside of Germany and half from products other than photovoltaic panels, e.g. wind turbines and biogas furnaces.

Colorado voters passed a solar subsidy and credit program in 2004. To date, the market has been served by local installers.

Although it snows in Colorado and the state doesn't get as much sunshine as, let's say, Southern California, it can still benefit from solar. Cold and clear are actually ideal conditions for solar. Snow can also reflect light onto silicon panels in certain circumstances.

Ontario and Pennsylvania--which are further north--have begun to prime the solar market. Conergy in February bought an installer in Canada.

Next week is Solar Power 2007 in Long Beach. All of these companies will be in attendance to beat each other up, no doubt. Expect a lot of news from panel makers too.

High-end solar technology isn't just for power plants and commercial rooftops. It also works in parking lots.

Soliant Energy is a start-up doing concentrating photovoltaic systems, which uses a series of mirrored tubes to magnify sunlight onto solar cells to boost electricity. (For an FAQ and photo gallery on concentrating PV, see this article.)

Soliant's primary customer is commercial building owners but the company's product design is flexible enough that it has developed a specialized solar-power generator for car parks, or roofs that shade cars during the day.

"One thing we realized about a year ago was that we could make very large panels, which is something that ordinary solar panels can't do," said company CEO Brad Hines.

The company's traditional "heliotube" concentrator, which is meant to be the same size as traditional solar panels, has 10 tubes that shine light onto solar cells.

To make a product to shade cars it used the same basic design, but by stringing together 16 tubes, Soliant makes the panel a little over 8 feet long, said Hines. The company is planning to ship its commercial products by the end of this year.

SolFocus, which builds high-end solar-power systems, on Wednesday said it has acquired Madrid, Spain-based Inspira, a provider of specialized sun "trackers," for an undisclosed price.

A spin-off from Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, SolFocus builds solar concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) arrays that use several small mirrored dishes to magnify sunlight hundreds of times to get more electricity from high-efficiency solar cells.

Inspira has developed control systems that precisely track the movement of the sun during the day to maximize light intake. These types of trackers are common on concentrator solar-power systems, which seek to squeeze more power from pricey photovoltaic cells. Inspira also makes controls for traditional flat-plate solar panels used in large "power fields," where hundreds or thousands of panels are lined up.

Inspira will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of SolFocus and continue to make products for both markets, said Nancy Hartsoch, SolFocus' vice president of marketing.

SolFocus already uses Inspira's trackers and its arrays. By bringing SolFocus' expertise in manufacturing at the large scale to Inspira's product line, the company hopes to bring down the cost of the trackers, Hartsoch said.

"Tracker technology with concentrator photovoltaics is integral to how well the system performs and integral to bringing the cost down. It's in our best interest to bring tracker cost down--and it benefits the entire CPV industry as a whole," she said.

SolFocus, which raised $32 million in a series A round of funding, is testing its concentrator photovoltaic arrays this year and plans to have commercially available products next year. The target applications are large commercial solar installations or midsize power plants.

Quick, what do BP, Sharp and Sanyo all have in common?

. . .

Give up? They are all among the largest producers of solar modules. And recently Honda and Applied Materials have entered the solar business as well.

If you are a renewable energy fan, you have to get excited when large semiconductor equipment experts like Applied Materials get in the game.

But the most recent prospective entrant (which I have blogged about) is IBM. Big Blue's program is still under wraps, but it has worked on solar technology in its research arm since the 1970s and has massive expertise in semiconductors, material science and other related technologies to bring to bear.

As more and more major companies from the semiconductor sector enter the business, you can bet that costs will come down fast, and the currently sky high price for solar power will fall--and that's good for all of us.