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Opinion
UK set to approve feed-in tariff for renewables micro-generation - UPDATED
UPDATED 22-10-08 Today the UK parliament has published amendments to the Energy Bill, which provide more information on the potential feed-in tariff for renewable energies. Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for the Department of Energy and Climate Change in the UK, said last week in a presentation to the House of Lords that he intends to amend the current energy bill that goes before the Houses of Parliament this week. These amendments are now available ...
News
WACKER SCHOTT Solar to build new wafer plant to meet huge demand
WACKER SCHOTT Solar is expanding its wafer production capacity to meet what it described as ‘huge demand’ with the construction of a new plant in Jena, Germany. The new facility is intended to help the joint venture company meet long-term supply contracts already secured through 2017. ‘Fab Jena 3’, will occupy an existing building at SCHOTT AG’s premises in Jena, the companies said.
KYOCERA to construct new solar cell manufacturing plant in Japan
Kyocera Corporation is to construct a new large-scale solar cell manufacturing facility, which will be located in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, and will be the largest of the Kyocera Group’s Japan-based solar cell manufacturing plants. The new plant will manufacture the Back Contact Cell, developed in 2006, which achieves an 18.5% energy conversion efficiency rate. Construction is scheduled to start in 2009 with completion within the year so that production can begin in the spring of 2010.
Dyesol unveils new facility in Wales
Dyesol recently opened its newest facility in Shotton, North Wales only a few weeks after its Australian materials manufacturing and equipment design and assembly facility was unveiled. The new photovoltaic accelerator facility is a continuation of the partnership between Dyesol and Corus to step up the commercialisation of Dye Solar Cell (DSC) technology onto steel sheeting building products.
IQE opens Singapore facility
IQE plc recently opened its new facility, marking the occasion with an opening ceremony with 200 guests that included Paul Madden, British High Commissioner in Singapore, Dr. Drew Nelson (pictured), CEO of IQE and Lim Swee Nian, Executive Director of the Singapore Economic Development Board. This new plant is the relocation of the company’s former facility at the Singapore Science Park to the new industrial development in Tampines, Singapore.
Yingli Green Energy and TÜV Rheinland sign memorandum of understanding
It was recently announced that Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., Ltd. and TÜV Rheinland Co., Ltd. have entered into a memorandum of understanding, which intends to form a partnership in a range of quality control initiatives.
Read more >>M+W Zander selected as contractor for new REC complex in Singapore
M+W Zander has been chosen by the Norwegian Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) as the contractor for the new photovoltaics manufacturing development in Singapore. The order volume is estimated to be within the three-digit million Euros range. M+W’s work will encompass the planning and construction for the cells and modules part of the integrated solar complex which includes the hook-up of the process tools.
Featured Articles
First Edition: International Standards: a critical step towards reducing PV manufacturing cost
By Bettina Weiss, PV Group (North America), SEMI, USA
ABSTRACT
Many readers will equate SEMI with the SEMICON trade shows around the world, business and technical conferences, EHS and advocacy initiatives and, most of all, industry standards. Currently, SEMI has close to 2,000 member companies, about 20% of which are active in the photovoltaic sector. These companies form a community called PV Group. The mission of the PV Group is to serve the photovoltaic market with events, standards and services. Working with other industry groups throughout the world, SEMI is dedicated to advancing the growth and profitability of its members, and to achieve overall cost reduction to enable PV energy adoption worldwide. We listen closely to our constituents’ needs and are committed to developing unique approaches to unique problems. Connecting markets and industries that benefit from dialogue has been our mission for 38 years. Between former semiconductor professionals moving into PV, pure PV manufacturers and a startling number of start-ups, there is fertile ground for collective discussions in all regions of the world that are necessary to propel us forward.
The dawn of the ‘gigawatt’ fab
Mark Osborne, Photovoltaics International
ABSTRACT
Rapid growth in the demand for photovoltaics has enabled an aggressive ramp of production not just on the part of the leading PV manufacturers, but by many new entrants in only the last few years. Continued robust demand is resulting in larger economies of scale production that, when combined primarily with a steady improvement in conversion efficiencies, is leading the industry towards a cost-per-watt level that could finally reach grid parity at peak usage levels by the 2012 timeframe. However, this may not in itself lead to the claimed industry goal without a shift to large-scale gigawatt manufacturing facilities. We discuss the opportunities for scaling PV manufacturing with Robert Gattereder, Managing Director of M+W Zander FE GmbH after a detailed study challenges the current mind set and forces manufacturers to consider scaling manufacturing to new heights.
Read more >>Product Briefings
New Product: Pfeiffer Vacuum’s ‘HiPace’ turbopump line expanded
Product Briefing Outline: Pfeiffer Vacuum has broadened its line of ‘HiPace’ turbopumps to include four new sizes. They are characterised by their high pumping speeds for both light (H2, He) and heavy gases (Ar, CF4), achieving high throughputs for heavy gases.
Read more >>New Product: Eyelit Inc’s MES is designed for fast ramp flexibility
Product Briefing Outline: The ‘Eyelit Manufacturing’ solution delivers a full featured, technically advanced manufacturing execution system (MES), asset management, product costing, plant-level connectivity hub, and broad spectrum of other essential functionality. By giving clear insight into production process efficiency, performance/equipment efficiency, inventory control and resource management along with the ability to automatically react to conditions in any factory system, Eyelit Manufacturing suite enables customers to coordinate, control, and respond to changing demands in production.
Read more >>