Company achieves another milestone on its technology roadmap Continuing innovation will lead to lower-cost solar electricity

UnitedSolar, a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD)(Nasdaq:ENER) and a leading global manufacturer of light-weight, flexiblethin-film solar modules, today announced that it has achieved a world recordefficiency of 16.3% for thin-film silicon solar technology. This achievement ishigher than the previous record of 15.4%, also reached by United Solar. UnitedSolar attained a small-area (0.25 cm²) initial cell efficiency of16.3% using a triple-junction structure incorporating the recently patentedNano-Crystalline™ silicon technology.

The cellswill be sent to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), an officialU.S. Department of Energy laboratory, for independent testing and confirmation.Earlier this year, United Solar announced that NREL had confirmed that thecompany’s Nano-Crystalline technology achieves 12% initial conversionefficiency in a large-area encapsulated cell (400 cm²), also aworld-record for thin-film silicon solar technology.

"Thisrepresents another substantial milestone for the company as we continue todevelop our technology through a focus on conversion efficiency," said JayKnoll, Interim President of Energy Conversion Devices, United Solar’s parentcompany. "Our core technology can now reach conversion efficiencies of16.3% in the lab, an increase from 15.4%, leading the way in thin-film silicontechnology development."

Theresults will be reported at the Intersolar North America Conference in SanFrancisco, California by Dr. Subhendu Guha, Chairman of United Solar, onWednesday, July 13, 2011 at the session on "Thin-Film — TechnologicalAdvancements."

Popularity:1%

RelatedPosts:

1. World Record for Multi-Crystalline Module Conversion Efficiency – Suntech with Another Breakthrough

HAMBURG, Germany and WUXI, China, Sept. 23 –Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), the world’s leading manufacturerof crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules, has announced today thatit...

2. Breakthrough Pluto Technology Developed by Suntech Achieves Efficiencies of 19% on Mono- crystalline PV Cells and 17% on Multi-crystalline PV Cells in Production

  –Conversion Efficiencies IndependentlyVerified by the Fraunhofer Institute SAN FRANCISCO and WUXI, China, March 27,2009 /PRNewswire-Asia via COMTEX/ — Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE:STP), the world’s...

3. Suntech with World Record Conversion Efficiency for a Multi-Crystalline Module

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), hasannounced today (19.08.2009) that it has achieved a new world record conversionefficiency of 15.6% on a commercial grade multi-crystalline silicon PV...

4. Trina Solar Announces New Technology to Boost Conversion Efficiency with Square Monocrystalline Cells

Trina Solar Limited (TSL) a leading integratedmanufacturer of solar photovoltaic (PV) products from the production of ingots,wafers and cells to the assembly of PV modules, has just announced...

Green Energy Trends 2010

CleanEdgehas just released a report on “Clean Energy Trends 2010”.

Accordingto the report:

• Biofuels (global production and wholesale pricing of ethanol and biodiesel) reached $44.9 billion in 2009 and are projected to grow to $112.5 billion by 2019. In 2009 the biofuels market consisted of more than 23.6 billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel production worldwide.
• Wind power (new installation capital costs) is projected to expand from $63.5 billion in 2009 to $114.5 billion in 2019. Last year’s global wind power installations reached a record 37,500 MW. China, the global leader in new installations for the first time, accounted for more than a third of new installations, or 13,000 MW.
• Solar photovoltaics (including modules, system components, and installation) will grow from a $30.7 billion industry in 2009 to $98.9 billion by 2019. New installations reached just less than 6 GW worldwide in 2009, a nearly sixfold increase from five years earlier, when the solar PV market reached the gigawatt milestone for the first time. But because of rapidly declining solar PV prices, industry revenue between 2008 and 2009 was down about 20 percent – from a revised $38.5 billion in 2008 – as solar prices dropped from an average $7 peak watt installed in 2008 to $5.12 peak watt installed last year.

Projected,these three benchmark technologies, which totaled $124.8 billion in 2008 andgrew 11 percent to $139.1 billion in 2009, are expected grow to $325.9 billionwithin a decade.

http://www.renewable-energy-sources.com/2010/03/30/green-energy-trends-2010/