Your daily dose of Photovoltaic Technology Developments and Solar News

Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) has received approval from the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) to start construction on three separate utility-scale solar power projects in the state. The construction of these projects will make Florida the second largest supplier of utility-generated solar power in the U.S. Read more >>

Magnolia Optical Technologies and Dr. Roger Welser of the Kopin Corporation have announced their co-development of indium nitride-based quantum dot solar cells for NASA and defense applications. Magnolia and Kopin have carried out successful collaborative development of GaN-based materials in the past. Read more >>

Oerlikon Solar has announced that it has received an order for two end-to-end thin film silicon production lines from Sunwell, a wholly owned subsidiary of CMC Magnetics. The first 60MW delivery will be to Sunwell’s Taiwan facility, while the remaining 120MW will be for Sunwell’s new site that is currently under construction. Read more >>

In a further extension to the company’s order backlog, Evergreen Solar has agreed to supply IBC SOLAR AG with solar panels to the value of approximately $1.2 billion. The contract, which extends through 2013, brings the company’s contractual backlog to almost $3 billion and is, according to Evergreen’s CEO Richard Feldt, the company’s largest single contract ever. Read more >>

TÜV Rheinland has awarded certification to standard IEC 61646 to ersol’s Nova-T amorphous thin-film module following collaboration by ersol with Oerlikon Solar. The modules are produced using Oerlikon’s fabrication equipment, and during the testing process underwent a variety of harsh stress tests to gain the sought-after certification. Read more >>

Leaders of the solar industry will meet on Wednesday, October 15th at the Solar Power Conference 2008 in San Diego. Solar Power is recognised as the biggest conference and exhibition for the solar industry in the USA. As one of the fastest-growing end user marketplaces in the world, it is no surprise that SEPA and SEIA, the organisers of the event, have been able to attract an all-star line-up of speakers. Read more >>

MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. has announced the signing of an agreement for the supply of solar wafers to the value of over $3 billion to Tainergy Tech Co., Ltd., a Taiwan-based solar cell manufacturer. The agreement, which will see MEMC provide Tainergy with solar wafers for the next ten years, will commence in the third quarter of 2008. The price of the wafers has been pre-determined, allowing for an estimate of the value of the deal. Read more >>

IMS Research, a market research company for the electronics industry, has claimed that its figures indicate a more than 40% growth rate in the solar inverter market. The growth is being driven primarily by demand from Germany and Spain, but a slowdown in these two countries could contribute to a slowdown in growth for 2009. Data for this study were obtained from sales figures of leading solar inverter suppliers. Read more >>

Solarfun Power Holdings Co., Ltd. has announced the completion of a 47MW solar module supply agreement between one of its wholly owned subsidiaries and Schüco International KG, a PV system provider. Solarfun will supply a total of 47MW of PV modules to Schüco at a fixed price between December 2008 and October 2009. Schüco expects to install the modules in major projects in Europe and the Middle East. Read more >>

Trina Solar Limited has announced the renewal of its supply agreement with Italy-based PV distributor Enerpoint for 2008-9. Under the terms of the agreement, Trina will supply 5MW of PV modules to Enerpoint in 2008, and between 22 and 30MW in 2009 at a price agreed by both companies. Read more >>