Technology and R&D

In a bid to bring renewable energy, like solar power, to Afghanistan, Lt. Col. Brian Stevens of the Texas Army National Guard is working with the Energy Executives Leadership Program, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which sees 20 energy executives gather together once a month for energy education sessions.

TÜV Rheinland AG has opened its seventh laboratory worldwide in the Indian city of Bangalore for testing solar modules and systems. The company has invested €2 million in the new solar test centre, which will, in particular, offer services to India’s growing solar industry. The test centre has 2,000 square meters of space, including an outside test field of 500 square meters, with equipment such as five climate chambers and two sun simulators. This, says the company, makes it the most up to date and largest laboratory in the entire South Asian economic area.

Dr. Farooq Abdullah, the Hon’ble Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy urged the Indian solar photovoltaics (PV) industry to focus on developing research initiatives, during the Solarcon India 2010, held in Hyderabad, India last week.

The government of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh in India has undertaken several outstanding initiatives in solar photovoltaics (PV), according to K. Rosaiah, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, who was speaking at the Solarcon India 2010 show in Hyderabad, India.

Germany-based Q-Cells SE is to offer a professorship at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, in Halle, starting in its 2010/2011 winter term in a bid to educate graduates beginning their careers about the opportunities available in the photovoltaics (PV) industry. With both activities, the company says it is underscoring its commitment to Germany as a research location.

pv magazine has learned from Professor Martin Green that Australia’s University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence will not be closing its doors, despite losing financial support from the ARC Centre of Excellence program from the end of this year.

Electricity generated from new photovoltaics (PV) installations is now cheaper than electricity from proposed new nuclear plants, in what has been dubbed a historic crossover.

Speaking to pv magazine, Manz Automation AG CFO, Martin Hipp underlined four strategic aims the company intends to achieve in the next few years under its new partnership with Würth Solar GmbH & Co. KG and the Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff-Forschung Baden-Württemberg (ZSW – Center for solar energy and hydrogen research).

The University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence is reportedly being forced to close its doors after Australia’s Labor government stopped its funding, as part of the party’s proposed cuts to finance a “cash-for-clunkers” low-emissions car program, the Greens say.

Propelled by aggressive research and development (R&D) activities, third generation photovoltaics (PVs) are poised to take a huge leap forward, says Frost & Sullivan in a new analysis. The exploratory mass production of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSC)-powered consumer durables is likely to alter the future course of research in this segment, says the company.