Converting Sunlight Into Electricity: European Project Breaks Efficiency Record

Scientists of the Commission-financed project FULLSPECTRUM have developed photovoltaic (PV) multi-junction (MJ) solar cells which are able to convert 39.7% of the energy of sun light into electricity. This is the highest percentage ever reached in Europe, according to researchers after their final workshop today in El Escorial, Spain.

The main barrier to large-scale deployment of PV systems is the high production cost of electricity, due to the significant capital investment costs. Research is engaged to reduce manufacturing costs and to raise the efficiency of the cells. Today conventional PV cells made of silicon are converting only a fraction of the solar light spectrum around 17%.

Two-Thirds of the World's New Solar Panels Were Installed in Europe in 2011

Europe accounted for two thirds of the world-wide newly installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity in 2011, with 18.5 GW. Its overall PV capacity totalled 52 GW. The yearly electricity produced by PV could power a country with the electricity demand of Austria, which corresponds to 2% of the EU's electricity needs. These are some of the highlights of the 2012 Photovoltaics Status Report published September 24 by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.

The study summarises and evaluates the current activities regarding manufacturing, policies and market implementation world-wide.

Over the past ten years, the PV industry grew in Europe by an average of over 40% per year and the production costs have decreased by around 60%. Underlying this progress is the EU commitment towards PV systems as a means to achieve the goal of using 20% of renewable energy by 2020.

Top 12 PCB Manufacturers in India

According to Innovative Business Enterprises, the demand for PCBs in India is expected to grow to over 45 million sq m by 2014, translating to an impressive CAGR of 17 per cent. While India is exporting about 24 per cent of its PCB production to the US, Germany, Malaysia, Austria, Belgium, etc, it has a fairly large domestic market to cater to.
 

The main demand for PCBs comes from the consumer electronics, industrial and automotive electronics markets, as well as from power and telecommunications......

India plans to double solar capacity, thanks to blackouts

India suffers from frequent power shortages and blackouts, which have impeded the nation’s economic growth. This is mostly because India depends on coal for two-thirds of its power generation. Most of the coal in India is controlled by Coal India, a government-based group that struggles to meet electricity demand because of corruption and weak policies. In fact, the gap between electricity supply and demand is about 10%.

Price gap between local and imported solar modules trouble manufacturers in Andhra

Power holiday for three days in a week in Andhra Pradesh is proving beneficial to China and European solar module importers indirectly.Though various module manufacturing companies are seeing an increase in number of enquires for solar modules, they are not sure if they would be converted into sales as cheaper options, in the form of imports from China, are available.