Solar business from Korea

Focussing its research capabilities on the thin-film sector, LG Display is looking to the future of solar energy with its recent investment of 50 billion won ($40 million) in a pilot line and testing facility for solar cells. The pilot line will be built in LG’s Paju display complex in Korea later this year, while an outdoor test power generation facility will also be constructed at the site. The pilot line will enable the testing and research of thin-film solar cell efficiencies, with the company aiming to achieve an increase in the current energy conversion efficiency rate of 8% to 12% by 2010. Commercialization, planned for 2012, will occur when the research facility has raised the cells’ efficiency to 14%, enabling the manufacturing cost to be lowered to less than US$1 per watt. LG Display’s target market in this phase will be commercial applications buildings and public displays, graduating to solar cells for mobile displays, automobiles, and eventually to supplying cells for suc...

SoloPower today became the first US ANSI/UL 1703-certified manufacturer of flat-plate, CIGS based (copper indium gallium selenide) PC module. The Silicon Valley-based producer of thin-film solar photovoltaic cells and modules is well on the way to its goal of mass-producing PV modules. Intertek, an independent, multi-national product safety certification organization, granted the ETL certification. The product was tested to meet ANSI/UL 1703, the developed standard for safety flat-plate photovoltaic modules and panels. Being certified is an important technical and commercial achievement for SoloPower’s products in the US and Canada. The certification is an added third-party confirmation that the company’s PV modules conform to rigorous safety standards.