Panasonic announced today that it will buy out two of its subsidiaries, Sanyo and Panasonic Electric Works, for $9.4 billion.
Sanyo is the largest lithium-ion rechargeable battery producer and 11th-largest solar cell producer in the world with a quickly-growing solar panel manufacturing arm according to company statements. → Read More
There’s a reason why Panasonic paid $4.4 billion in this economic downturn to acquire former rival Sanyo, and the reason is that Panasonic wants to go as “green” as possible in the future. Sanyo isn’t only the world’s leading maker of lithium ion batteries, but also the (now former) company behind the eneloop brand, which consists of a range of eco-friendly solar products.
But buying Sanyo wasn’t… → Read More
Earlier this year, we reported twice about Japan’s serious plans to go to outer space to generate solar energy and then beam it back to Mother Earth. And today, Sharp has shown the first solar cell that’s not only bendable (we’ve seen that before) but that also withstands conditions in space. In addition, the company says those cells boast a record-high solar efficiency of 36%. → Read More
Sharp Japan today said [press release in English] it supplied a total of 2,176 high-quality solar cells to a research team developing a sun-powered racing car at Japan-based Tokai University. The cells used for the car are usually powering satellites and measure 77 x 39mm, which translates back to a total area of about 6m2. → Read More
I think everyone agrees that using solar energy is generally a good thing to do, but there are usually two problems: cost and effective conversion rates (sun light to solar energy). Now Tokyo-based Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) has developed an organic thin-film solar cell that does away with the need for using (expensive) silicon for the production of these cells. And it’s relatively efficient, too. → Read More
Sharp has developed a crystalline Si solar cell prototype with a cell conversion efficiency of 20%, aiming for mass production in 2010. The company claims its product will be the most efficient residential crystalline silicon solar cell available. An unnamed American manufacturer has been contacted in order to procure enough polycrystalline Si when commercialization starts. Sharp has chosen solar… → Read More
Mitsubishi Electric today said it has produced a polycrystalline-silicon solar cell that converts light energy to electrical energy with an efficiency of 18.6%. According to the company, the previous record stood at 18.3%. The protoype is sized at 150x150mm and has a thickness of 180 microns. Mitsubishi structured the surface like a honeycomb in order to reduce reflections of sunrays. In addition… → Read More
Market research company Fuji Keizai is predicting the global market for solar cells will grow 27% annually until 2012, when it supposedly will reach a size of $42.5 billion. In 2007, the market was worth $10.9 billion. Fuji Keizai calculated that polycrystalline silicon solar cells accounted for 90% of the market in 2007 but says the importance of silicon in the use of solar cells will gradually… → Read More
Tokyo-based Nihon Telecommunication System Inc. [JP] is offering windowpanes with built-in photovoltaic cells, mainly aimed at the residential housing market. According to the company, the electricity produced through the panes will be just enough to power a PC and recharge a cell phone. The electricity will be tapped via USB ports. On sunny days, the new windowpanes are supposed to generate up to… → Read More
Some really smart researchers at Penn State have created a device that mimics the photosynthesis process that plants use to strip energy from sunlight and water. Their solar cell is super inefficient right now (the researchers have to help the reaction along a bit) but they say that with time and effort they may get to a level of efficiency (10-15%, which means nothing to me) that could provide a… → Read More
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