U.S. Senate votes to extend solar, R&D tax credits; SEIA applauds move - 23 September 2008
Solar module price erosion to cause industry fall-out, says Lux Research - 02 October 2008
Moser Baer raises funds for silicon solar and thin film production expansion - 23 September 2008
U.S. House recesses, fails to pass tax bill, leaving solar, R&D credits in doubt - 29 September 2008
REC sold out of wafers for 2010 with $450 million order from Neo Solar Power - 30 September 2008
Timminco updates solar-grade silicon operations, sees production of 1200-1500 metric tons in 2008 - 06 October 2008
Hague signs letter of intent to buy assets of quantum-dot PV cell company Solterra - 06 October 2008
Ogilvy PR lands SunPower global account - 06 October 2008
Xcel’s North Shore Headquarters Selects Hoku Solar - 06 October 2008
Solar cells use old material in new way - 06 October 2008
Global Solar's Tim Teich told me at Intersolar North America in San Francisco last week that the several acres of desert scrub designated for the field, located across the parking lot from the company's South Tucson factory, have been "plowed, fenced, and racked" over the past six weeks. He said the panels have been fabricated and stacks of them are sitting, ready to be shipped, at Solon America's module-making facility a few miles down the road from Global.
The CIGS "modules are going on in August," noted Teich, "and the power will be turned on by November," although the switch could be flipped as soon as September, especially if an inverter they're waiting on shows up soon.
"It will be interesting to see the output of the field," he continued, which will be specified at 750 KW DC/1.1 MW AC and is expected to supply up to 25% of the Global fab's power needs. It will take a few weeks for the field to initially stabilize after it's activated.
"The light soak of CIGS happens in the first day," explained Teich. "Peak power is reached in about four weeks, and then it stabilizes after that." But he added that the precise period of stabilization and other system performance stats are still "speculation," since there have not been (m)any CIGS fields of this size, certainly not in the US.
The company will have a dashboard monitor running on a TV screen in its lobby, which will show a live feed of some of the installation's operational parameters--and provide a nice morale booster to the employees, no doubt. "By the end of the year, we will have good data [from the solar field]... and Tucson is a good place to test it," according to Teich, given the area's extremes of heat and cold, dry weather and monsoonal moisture, and the like.
For more reporting on Global Solar from Intersolar (customer orders, factory ramp status, latest conversion efficiencies, progress on barrier/encapsulation materials, the company's strategy for building-integrated PV--what Teich calls "energized building solutions, etc.), check out my colleagues' stories at Greentech Media and Solid State Technology.
