Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

• Most Popular Articles

  • Q-Cells CEO exits amid investor anxiety
  • Moser Baer achieves 7.3% module efficiency through its proprietary process
  • Solar photovoltaic market grew 6% in 2009, says Solarbuzz
  • Yingli Green to add 300MW of capacity; tops $1B in annual revenues, achieves record module shipments
  • Project Focus: SunPower scores 200MW rooftop PV contract with Southern California Edison

• Popular Technical Papers

  • Photovoltaic Fab Managers’ Forum Review
  • Photovoltaic industry 2009: a journey into uncertainty
  • Overview of automation in the photovoltaic industry
  • Thin-film CIGS starts to come of age
  • CIGS, CdTe thin-film PV equipment sector emerges, standardization remains elusive

• Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

  Name
  Job title
  Company
  Email

KSK Surya Photovoltaic Venture, a subsidiary of KSK Power Ventur, independent power provider in India, has signed a contract with Applied Materials, to purchase two Applied SunFab thin-film lines for manufacturing 5.7m² solar panels. The SunFab lines are to be installed in a new facility with projected annual capacity of 150MW.

When complete, the facility will be the largest PV factory in India. By utilising Applied Materials' tandem junction technology, each 5.7m² SunFab panel is expected to have a power output of more than 500Wp.

T.L. Sankar, KSK's chairman, said, "Since India receives among the highest amount of solar radiation in the world, it must become a leader in solar power-generation technology. Our alliance with Applied Materials will help KSK play a significant part in India's new Solar Mission to build 20GW of solar power by 2020."

KSK also intends to apply its power generation experience to system integration and development of solar farms selling energy into the grid.

Dr. Mark Pinto, senior vice president and general manager of Applied's Energy and Environmental Solutions Group said, "The fully integrated SunFab lines will enable KSK to rapidly and cost-effectively deploy solar farms to meet India's fast-growing, energy needs."

Further to this, KSK has signed a service contract with Applied Materials covering the first five years of production. Applied will support KSK's lines with maintenance, spare parts and other services in order to optimize the equipment performance and maximize the manufacturing output. The two companies will work together to develop continuous improvement programs to increase module efficiency and lower operating costs.