Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

As part of its strategic plan to become a leading broad-based equipment supplier to the solar manufacturing industry, Meyer Burger Technology has acquired the remaining 34% share capital in Hennecke Systems. Meyer Burger had concluded a 66% share acquisition in the inspection equipment firm in February, 2008.

Solon SE is expanding its global reach with a strategic partnership agreement with Czech turnkey project developer Energ Servis. Solon has also agreed to, under the terms of the agreement, supply Energ Servis with 5MW of PV modules throughout 2010.

Golden, Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) is to test Alcoa’s new CSP parabolic trough system for efficiency and to evaluate its structural performance. NREL has installed one of Alcoa’s systems for the round of tests, which follows similar tests carried out at the Alcoa Technical Center outside of Pittsburgh, PA.

Solar Power, Inc. has embarked on a new solar system installation project that will see the company set up eight PV systems at seven schools and a district office in Baldwin Park, California. The Baldwin Park Unified School District (BPUSD) has commissioned the project, which will total 2.24MW on completion, with the aim of saving an estimated $22.6 million in electricity costs.

A global exclusive distribution agreement has been signed between Pioneer Materials and Matheson Tri-Gas that will enable Pioneer Materials to concentrate on production and product development of its range of CIGS (copper indium gallium selenium), CIS (copper indium di-sulphide) and other related thin film compounds, while speciality materials producer and distributor handles sales, distribution and customer services.

Leveraging its refining facility in Germany (5N PV GmbH), which was established to meet the needs of First Solar’s thin-film production facility in the country, 5N Plus has now been selected by First Solar rival, Calyxo to supply high-purity metals and compounds for its CdTe thin film products. Calyxo is a subsidiary of Q-Cells. The agreement also includes long-term PV module and production scrap recycling services. 5N Plus also recently secured a similar deal with another CdTe thin film start-up, Abound Solar.

GCL-Poly has announced 2009 financial results and detailed a major effort to diversify operations and move downstream into wafer and solar project development. Revenue from the sale of polysilicon and wafers amounted to RMB 2,537.1 million (US$371.6 million) and and RMB 262.3 million (US$38.4 million respectively. GCL-Poly was able to produce 7,454MT of polysilicon in 2009 and sold 5,675MT as well as 46.4MW of wafers via tolling arrangements. Average selling price for polysilicon was US$65.4 per kg and US$0.83/W for wafers. As the company ramped polysilicon production and benefited from improved economies of scale, production costs declined significantly from US$66.0 per kg in 2008 to US$39.4 per kg in 2009.

SunPower Corp has reported record fourth quarter revenue of US$548 million, which helped push 2009 total revenues to US$1.52 billion, a 6% increase over 2008. SunPower guided revenue for 2010 would be between US$2.00 and US$2.25 billion and heavily weighted to large-scale utility projects in the second half of the year. The SunRay Renewable Energy acquisition will add 1.2GW to its project pipeline, which the company said was now standing at 4GW. The company reached a cost per watt of slightly below US$2.00 in the fourth quarter.

The roller coaster ride for UMG-silicon production at Timminco would seem to be over for the time being with the company announcing it has completely stopped production due to lack of demand and plummeting prices. Timminco’s silicon metal subsidiary, Becancour also suffered from low quality issues with much of its production in 2009 returned to the company from its customers. Becancour has switched to silicon metal production, which is showing stronger demand from polysilicon producers. However, the company reiterated its difficult financial position and going concern issues.

SolFocus is installing a 1MW high-concentrator photovoltaics system at Victor Valley College in the high desert of California. Construction of the HCPV installation, which consists of 122 of the company's SF-1100S 8.4KW arrays spread across six acres, is taking place on the college's main campus in Victorville, CA. When the power plant is completed in May, it will generate about 2.5 million kilowatt-hours annually (roughly 30% of the college's electricity demand) and be the largest facility of its kind in North America, according to SolFocus.