The U.S. Solar Market Insight quarterly analysis reports that, in spite of the current bleak market outlook related to the recent Solyndra scandal, growth is expected to continue to increase throughout the last half of 2011. Photovoltaic solar installations apparently grew by 69 percent during the first half of 2011, when compared to the same time period…

MASH, or Multifamily Affordable Solar Housing, is a program using $108 million from the California Solar Initiative to help provide solar panels to lower income families. MASH has recently finished its first solar installation on Hacienda Townhomes, an inexpensive housing complex owned by the San Diego Community Housing Corporation. Several tenants living there only bring in…

Although silicon is actually the market common semiconductor in most electric devices, which includes the photovoltaic cells that sun panels employ to convert sunlight into power, it is hardly the most effective material available. For instance, the semiconductor gallium arsenide and connected substance semiconductors give nearly twice the performance as silicon in solar units, but they are rarely utilized in utility-scale applications mainly because of their excessive manufacturing value. U. of I. teachers J. Rogers and X. Li investigated lower-cost methods to produce thin films of…

A few months back, Southern California Edison signed a power purchase agreement with Solaren to construct a 200MW space-based solar power center by the year 2016. Solaren already holds two patents for space-based systems, however each of the patents opened are very broad and the company hasn’t openly addressed any elements of its proposal. Another company…

As large energy utilities across America invest more in industrial-scale solar farms, the projected growth for the industry has expanded immensely. Barclays Capital, an international investment bank’s analyst has said that the need for utility-scale solar developments could ultimately make up 50 percent of the United States market. The analyst also mentioned that large utilities may install about 5 gigawatts of solar photovoltaic farms across America within the next three years. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, existing utility-scale renewable energy projects…