Tag Archives: panels
Jigar Shah Discusses Chinese Solar Panel Tariffs
Jigar Shah co-founded SunEdison in 2003 and scaled it up to become the largest U.S.-based solar developer. CREDIT: Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, CASE Last October the US subsidiary of German-based SolarWorld, a manufacturer of polysilicon solar cells, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission alleging that China was [...]
In Focus: PV Panel Innovation
Although the benefits of solar power are well documented, the essential technology that underpins solar panels themselves has been largely unchanged for some time. Many new lightweight materials that can be used to make photovoltaic panels have come onto the market, and while some are far lighter and more flexible than the older glass-based panels, [...]
Chemelic’s RepelSmart Spray: Keeping Dust off Solar Panels
Twenty years ago, a new product that prevented dust from gathering on glass surfaces would have been marketed to housewives. Not today. Chemelic’s new RepelSmart is a perfect fit for the solar industry. “We decided this was the right market for the product,” said Jeff Eaves, Chamelic’s CEO. “It loves to stick to glass, which [...]
Alta Devices Achieves 23.5% Solar Panel Efficiency
For the second time in as many months, a solar manufacturer is announcing record conversion efficiencies for its solar energy-harvesting products. In this case, the company is Alta Devices of Santa Clara, California, and the efficiency rating – of 23.5 percent – is for its solar panels made from gallium arsenide (GaAs) on thin-film. The [...]
Will Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels Hurt Future Projects?
With the looming threat of tariffs on solar panels imported from China, a lot of utility-scale projects are at a standstill. “It’s hard to say how tariffs could impact projects that are in development now,” GTM Research managing director Shayle Kann said at the Solar Power Generation USA Conference in Los Vegas last week. “I [...]
12 Ways to Get Snow off Solar Panels
Snow cover can shut down your solar system for days and days, even in blue-sky, sunny conditions, as our own experiencein Aurora, Colo. has repeatedly shown us. We haven’t come up with the ideal solution yet – and clearly neither has the solar industry – but below are some different approaches to dealing with snow-covered [...]
The Most Popular Solar Brands in California
One great thing about the California Solar Initiative (CSI) is that they keep pretty good data on the solar in their state. Thankfully it’s the US State with the most solar installations (4 times as much as 2nd place, NJ). So we can use CA’s data to find out which solar panel brand is the [...]
Solar Panel Efficiency 101
Solar panel efficiency is simple, but there a few things you need to understand. There are 3 main types of solar efficiency. 1. Module Efficiency 2. Area Efficiency (Density) 3. Cell Efficiency 1. Module efficiency measures how well a solar module (aka panel) converts the Sun’s energy into usable energy. If the Sun dumps 100 [...]
FUTUREWATCH: Solar Panels Generating Energy from Indoor Light
Dwindling natural resources and the ever-growing demands of the human populace have led us to seek out alternative means of living. The good news is that nature’s sources can give us an endless supply of raw materials. The world’s dependence on conventional resources like fossil fuels has led to a slump in supply as it [...]