Gents, I have a little in-road into the German PV scene. >From what I can tell, crystalline Si is still out in front, however there a couple of German companies are now looking seriously at one of the thin film competitors - cadmium telluride. The company I work for currently is developing an atmospheric pressure vapor deposition process for CdTe. (Three cheers for II-VI chalcogenides huzzah huzzah huzzah) The company I worked for up until 2003 - First Solar LLC of Perrysburg, Ohio (formerly Solar Cells Inc.) is selling CdTe thin film PV hand over fist (or Hanover Fist?) in Germany. Another German firm that was defunct for a while, Antec, is back, I hear, and getting into CdTe again. I think the big PV players in Germany are RWE Schott (with a Si plant in Billerica, Mass) and Q-Cells.
NR --- Michael Huffman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Moin Terry, > > I know very little about what kind of deals the > German government made with > the power companies, but there must have been > something similar as to the tax > incentives for the power companies. Apparently, > there was a major > consolidation of the utilities in general in the > last 5 years or so, so I > would imagine that they have a pretty powerful > lobby, but they are at the > same time intelligent enough politically to apply > their influence in the > background. The power company name that I see most > often is called Eon. > > As for the type of material that is in use for the > panels, I'm not sure. I > recall reading some time ago that Siemens was one of > the major players in the > solar panel industry here, and that they were > offering panels that came with > a 20 year warranty. A quick search would probably > bring up a lot of hype on > whatever technology is in production. I could write > my engineer friend, and > ask him what he decided to use. I am long overdue > in writing to him anyway. > I'll let you know what he says. > > Knuke > > Am Freitag, 13. Mai 2005 17:46 schrieb Terry > Blanton: > > Yes, Germany is mentioned in the first reference. > I don't know how it > > works there; however, in WA, the power companies > are given tax incentives > > for their cooperation. > > > > Generally, do the Germans use crystalline or > amorphous? > > > > http://solar.calvin.edu/education/comparison.php > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
