Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

Ohio continues to stake its claim as one of the more solar-visionary states in the U.S., both in terms of nurturing a growing photovoltaic manufacturing base and putting the power panels (and its people making and installing them) to work. The latest example comes in the form of more than $13 million in grant awards just funded by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s State Energy Program (the first to be awarded from said program). Although some of the dough has been designated for wind and solar thermal projects, the lion’s share—more than $7.4 million—will go to 15 solar photovoltaic power installations to be deployed throughout the Buckeye state.

As the dominant state for solar module installations, California is the most competitive region for companies marketing their solar modules in the U.S. Until now, SunPower with its network of distributors and project knowhow has been the leading module supplier in the state but things are starting to shift rapidly, and SunPower is in danger of losing the number-one slot. However, SunPower is not alone in losing market share; a growing list of other name brands are set to see lower share of the market in ’09 compared to last year.

The saying goes “make hay when the sun shines”, and India’s solar PV industry was certainly doing so at the Solarcon India 2009 show held in association with Intersolar India at Hyderabad from November 9th to 11th 2009. It was perhaps the first time that the entire PV industry was comprehensively brought together – including materials and equipment, cell and module manufacturing, balance of systems (BOS) space, total PV solution providers, the finance and banking community, policy makers, end users, and service providers – under one roof.

On the surface (pun intended) there would seem to be of little interest or need to know more about the recent acquisition by Applied Materials of a small cap semiconductor equipment supplier, Semitool. The Montana-based wet processing specialist has been around for a long-time and perhaps because of where it is based, compared with many equipment suppliers clustered in Silicon Valley, it gets little attention in comparison. However, solar cell producers may well find that they get a knock on the cleanroom door soon from Applied, to discuss porous silicon processes and a wet processing tool called the ‘Raider.’

Concentrating photovoltaic company GreenVolts has named Keith Lambert as its new senior VP of operations. Lambert brings 20 years of general management, operations and engineering experience in diverse industries including minicomputers, networking, contract manufacturing, wireless infrastructure, and optical communications.

Hans-Georg Schweikardt has been announced the new Head of Product Management at Sputnik Engineering's headquarters in Biel. Employed with the Swiss solar inverter manufacturer's German branch since 2004, Schweikardt has worked for the company as both a sales engineer and the head of sales.

Materials provider to the semiconductor and solar industries Voltaix has announced an executive management change as company founder and CEO Dr. John P. de Neufville has resigned his post. Remaining in the role of president, chairman and chief scientist for the company, Dr. de Neufville will be replaced in the CEO role on an interim basis by Mark K. Fine (left) from January 1, 2010. Matthew Stephens, COO, has also announced that he is departing the company to pursue other opportunities.