March 2009 Archives

Googleplex Solar

By Court Rye on March 30, 2009 10:33 AM | | Comments (0)
The Googleplex headquarters located in Mountain View California has installed one of the largest corporate solar power structures of any other company to date. The array consists of 9,212 solar panels produced by Sharp Electronics and has a capacity of 1.6 Megawatts (MW) which cover's ~30% of the Google campus electricity needs, the equivalent of roughly 1,000 California homes.

This installation is said to save Google $393,000 in electricity per year and can be monitored real time at this interactive page that contains data on the electricity being produced. One of the most unique features of the Googleplex array of solar panels is that it contains several clusters of solar trees. These parking lot covers are designed to keep cars cool while also producing electricity and serving it to both the Googleplex or plugin hybrid electric cars (PHEV's).

Google has long been a leader in environmental stewardship and has offered employees discounts on hybrid cars. Now that many Google employee hybrid owners are upgrading their cars to be plugins at places like Pat's Garage in San Francisco (which cost's about $10,000) Google is offering free charging as another incentive. In the rendering (taken from Google Earth and Sketchup) shown directly below you can see the solar trees off to the bottom left side.

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solar-panels-on-the-googleplex.jpg

Solar Loans and Green Financial Vehicles

By Court Rye on March 24, 2009 9:54 PM | | Comments (0)
The Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union, named for the street where the HP Garage was built, previously known simply as the Hewlett Packard Credit Union, has begun offering specially tailored loans for customers who want to invest in solar panels. Considering that the Addison Avenue FCU headquarters is located in Palo Alto, at the heart of Silicon Valley at Hewlett Packard headquarterswhere clean technology is booming, this is a welcomed and fitting program.

The New Solar Loan is advertised as "a special, low-interest loan for installing residential solar systems. Not only will (installing solar panels) increase your home's value and decrease your utility bills, you'll be preserving the environment." A whole new section of the Addison Avenue website has been dedicated to these new green products which can be viewed here.

I personally have been a member of Addison Avenue, and the HPCU, for over 10 years. It wasn't until recently however, when they changed their name and became independent from HP that non-HP applicants could even join the Credit Union. Considering the spectacular online banking tools they have developed, the responsible investment guidance I've been given, and the new solar loan and other green financial vehicles currently being developed and marketed. I would urge anyone interested in trying a new bank to learn more by calling in toll free at 1-877-233-4766 or visiting the website at https://addisonavenue.com/

It's worth noting that they are also running a special promotion right now where people who sign up for a solar loan are entered to win a Solio portable solar charger which we reviewed last year at Mac World here.

IDEA FARM Guy Living In Solar Powered Minivan

By Court Rye on March 23, 2009 11:44 PM | | Comments (0)
Anyone who lives in the Bay Area near San Francisco that drives around on a regular basis has seen the junky Chrysler IDEAFARM van parked on the side of the road. The gentleman living inside hops from San Jose to Oakland to San Francisco and back down to Mountain View on a weekly basis advertising his website with the hopes of attracting an audience seeking peace and separation from material things. Whether you agree with his mission, admire his courage, or are just tired of seeing the old van covered with delaminating particle board signs parked in front of your $4M mansion in Los Altos, you can probably appreciate the solar panel strapped to the top...

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The old minivan still runs on gasoline but once it's parked a metamorphasis begins and the front flaps fold down onto the hood. Connected to one of the flaps is a pivoting first generation silicon solar panel. That single 80W panel is enough to charge several batteries inside the van, keeping the owner connected to the internet (at least when he's near a Google WiFi hot spot).

The founder of IDEA FARM is a software engineer with a thirst for public activism. He says he's been harassed by police on more than one occasion and nearly trampled in Oakland. He also claims to be the first "homeless" man to ever write an operating system... something he is currently wrapping up from inside the van. Eventually his website (which frequently goes offline) will become a sort of social network designed to organize meetings where visitors can learn and share philosophies. It's not especially glamorous inside the van, and the living quarters are very cramped, but the gentleman himself is very outgoing and coherent... if not a little bit bold in some of his story telling and acting.

I'm not sure how far the IDEAFARM concept will go but it's interesting to consider the ways that off the grid mobile living could be powering new political and social movements around the country.

Lasers Used to Increase Solar Cell Manufacturing Efficiency

By Court Rye on March 3, 2009 1:30 PM | | Comments (0)

Press Release on behalf of Coherent Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., March 3, 2009


Three new lasers from Coherent Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) (Nasdaq: COHR) offer higher output power and increased throughput levels for solar cell manufacturing applications including Edge Isolation, Laser Grooved Buried Contacts, and Dielectric Ablation.  Specifically, new AVIA™ lasers now deliver output power levels of 28W at the short ultraviolet wavelength of 355 nm, and 45W in the green at 532 nm.  Each of these lasers represents the highest power level within their class.  In addition, a new Paladin™ laser now delivers ultra fast 80 MHz trains of picosecond pulses with power levels up to 16W at 355 nm.  Again, this represents the highest power currently available in a laser of this type.

 

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The AVIA series of turn-key, pulsed, solid-state lasers has played a pivotal role in accelerating the adoption of laser processing within the solar industry, and is one of the most widely used lasers in volume production today.  Indeed, AVIA lasers have been qualified within numerous cell and panel manufacturing steps for both crystalline-Silicon and Thin-Film production lines.  Recently, the Paladin lasers have found complementary application adoption where the further benefits of short pulsewidths provide cleaner material ablation at high speed. Shown below is an image of the Paladin solar laser.


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The AVIA family of ultraviolet lasers has almost single handedly proven the benefits of 24/7 laser micromachining on c-Si cells/wafers with short wavelengths at 355 nm.  Such benefits include (i) higher yield levels through matching of the laser's input wavelength to the absorption bands of c-Si / dielectrics, and (ii) increased efficiency by scribing narrower grooves due to tighter focusing from the short wavelength operation.  Paladin lasers feature similar benefits within applications which demand reduced thermal damage and multiple pulse ablation techniques.

 

And, it's not just front surface processes such as Laser Edge Isolation and Laser Grooved Buried Contacts that benefit from the higher power levels at 355 nm.  The new AVIA lasers bring through-via-drilling closer to becoming industrially viable within the solar industry.  There is currently a wide range of laser processes within c-Si cell manufacturing that rely upon via-drilling as an essential production step.  This includes solar cells incorporating Emitter-Wrap-Through and Metal-Wrap-Through designs where via-drilling forms an integral part of several 'advanced' cell concepts proposed by leading research labs.  Tiny vias are also required for various 'contact-opening' configurations.  Picosecond Paladin lasers can be used for c-Si applications such as Dielectric Ablation, or P2 / P3 patterning of Thin-Film CIGS layers.

 

The new AVIA and Paladin models are all Diode-Pumped Solid State (or DPSS) lasers, which operate off single-phase electricity and require no external consumables.  Featuring a wealth of software controlled pulsing options, both lasers are designed as industrial field integrated lasers for solar production lines, and are comprised of high reliability components with lifetimes of tens of thousands of hours.

 

ABOUT Coherent, Inc. - Founded in 1966, Coherent, Inc. is a Russell 2000 Index company and a world leader in providing laser-based solutions to the commercial and scientific research markets. Please direct any questions regarding content found in this release to Finlay Colville, Director of Marketing - Solar,  at +44 (0) 7802 238 775 or finlay.colville@coherent.com.  For more information about Coherent's role in the solar industry, visit our website at www.Coherent.com/Solar. 

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