November 18, 2010
New Leader in Worldwide Solar Cell Production
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As we reported earlier this fall the German market has exploded for solar installations causing some shortages worldwide in solar panel inventory access. Now it is being reported by iSuppli Corp. that seven Chinese solar manufacturers have taken the worldwide lead in production and should continue into next year.
Chinese Companies Dominate Solar Manufacturing Spending in 2010
Chinese companies are expected to lead the world in the expansion of solar cell and module manufacturing capacity in 2010, accounting for seven of the 10 biggest gainers in the industry, according to the market research firm iSuppli Corp.
Collectively, the seven Chinese companies are set to expand their Photovoltaic (PV) cell and module manufacturing by 6.4 Gigawatts (GW) in 2010, representing 71.8 percent of the total 8.98GW increase among the Top 10.
“While European countries like Germany are leading the world in solar installations, China has built a dominant position in the manufacturing of cells and modules that are used in these systems,” said Greg Sheppard, chief research officer for iSuppli. “With Chinese cell and module manufacturers now engaged in a race to expand manufacturing, the country is certain to maintain and expand its dominant position.”
The biggest expansion will be undertaken by China’s LDK Solar Co. Ltd., which will add a total of 1.42GW worth of module and cell manufacturing in 2010. The company will bring on 1.3GW of c-Si module capacity and 120 Megawatts (MW) of c-Si cell manufacturing capacity.
“LDK is adding enormous amounts of capacity as it tries to keep pace with fellow Chinese solar suppliers,” Sheppard observed.
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Filed under Press Releases, Solar Power by newenergy
September 4, 2008
What Is Solar Power – Your Questions Answered
Milton Barnes asked:
Basically, solar power is energy that is actually harnessed from the sun. Although the sun is millions of miles away from earth, if we had the ability to harness all the energy coming from the sun, there is more than enough power there to provide all the energy we need for the entire earth. In fact, there is enough energy to provide plenty of energy for 10,000 earths. While you can use solar power for a variety of appliances and other items, you have to realize that this is different than using this power to produce heat.
There are two different principles that are used with solar power. If you want to produce hot air or hot fluids, then solar thermal principles are used. However, if you want to product electricity, photovoltaic principles are used instead. If you want to produce solar power, there are four components that are needed, including a battery, a charge controller, a solar panel, and an inverter.
It is the solar panels that actually get the radiation from the sun and use it to charge up the battery. Then, the charge regulator actually makes sure that the battery charges as it should. Of course, probably the most important pieces of equipment are going to be the solar panels and usually they output energy in watts. These panels can be wired in a variety of ways, although usually parallel or series wiring is done to either increase the amperage or the voltage.
Filed under Alternative Energy by newenergy
