Your daily dose of Photovoltaic Technology Developments and Solar News

Amtech Systems has signed a a licensing agreement with South Korean toolmaker PST to market PST's proprietary phosphorus silicate glass dry etch processing system and to develop and manufacture additional models for use with Amtech's existing solar photovoltaic manufacturing equipment product lines.

Sunovia Energy Technologies, Inc. and EPIR Technologies, Inc. have successfully demonstrated the optical down-conversion for increased solar cell energy efficiency. This proves to be a significant advancement for the maximization of solar cell efficiency and will play a distinctive role in the commercialization of the companies high-efficiency solar cells. Dr. Jacqueline Johnson completed the optical down-conversion during her employment at EPIR, under the direction of Dr. Paul E. Hausgen, for the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Space Vehicles Directorate program.

Manz Automation, a solar technology provider, has published its revenue figures for the first nine months of 2008. The company was able to significantly increase both its revenues and earnings in the first nine months of the fiscal year, tripling its revenue figures to $159.1 million. The solar division significantly drove the growth where revenues were $88.81 million, compared to last years $32.64 million.

Blue Square Energy (BSE) announced its production of a 14.6 percent efficiency solar cell using its Bright Point technology. The result is the highest on upgraded metallurgical grade (UMG) silicon and was verified independently by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

Professor Shawn-Yu Lin of Rensselaer’s physics department has published findings this week after a year-long project that can potentially help the solar industry overcome some of the major hurdles involving the percentage of solar absorption. Working with his team, Lin has produced a new antireflective coating that increases the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels, while also allowing the panels to take in sun from almost every angle.

Suniva confirmed that it has successfully begun production on its 32-MW monocrystalline solar-cell production line in Norcross, GA. The company also said that it plans to install a second fab line next year with double the manufacturing capacity of the first line and will continue its turnkey partnership with centrotherm photovoltaics.