Your daily dose of Photovoltaic Technology Developments and Solar News

Sharp Corporation is to bring forward the planned production of its next generation solar thin film plant, based in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, according to Reuters, which cited a company spokesman. Sharp had planned production to start at the 1GW capacity facility in March 2010, but cited an increase in demand for the revised start, expected by the end of 2009.

Day4 Energy, Inc. has announced the planned cut of approximately 95 people from its workforce in an attempt to improve the company’s cost structure. The Canadian solar module manufacturer said that the cuts would affect the company’s Burnaby, BC production facility, and would incur restructuring costs of approximately $0.7 million. The affected employees would be offered severance and human resource support, according to the company.

Vacuum and abatement company Edwards has become the recipient of the South Korean Government’s “Export Tower Award” for the fourth year in a row. The award celebrates the company’s reaching of $70 million in exports for the year, having met incremental targets of $10M in 2004, $20M in 2006 and $50M in 2007. Presentation of the award took place during South Korea’s “45th Annual Day of the Export,” which event celebrates companies that have contributed to the Korean economy.

Evergreen Solar said it shipped 8.5 MW of its proprietary String Ribbon photovoltaic modules from its Devens, MA, factory and an additional 3.7 MW from its Marlboro, MA, pilot manufacturing facility during the fourth quarter of 2008, numbers that are in line with its announced expectations in October. The company also said it will consolidate production in its Devens plant.

Looking back over the year these are the stories that have made the headlines and been viewed the most by the audience at PV-Tech in the Fab and Facilities section. Take a look at the biggest stories involving Q-Cells, SunPower, Masdar, Applied Materials, Arise and Signet Solar.

Gov. Bill Richardson has announced that Signet Solar has chosen Belen, NM, as the site for its first North American thin-film-silicon solar PV module manufacturing facility. The first phase of the plant, set to have an annual 65-MW production capacity, is scheduled to start operations in 2010 and will create 200 high-wage jobs. Long-term plans call for building out capacity to 300 MW, hiring hundreds more workers, and constructing a large solar farm using Signet modules in the area.

REC has updated the status of its polysilicon expansion at Plant III, saying it has formally accepted and taken control over the entire fluidized bed reactor (FBR) area and all related equipment at the new factory under construction in Moses Lake, WA. However, quality control problems with certain carbon steel pipe welds have delayed start-up of silane production until late January 2009.

After a long site search and much speculation concerning the timing of its latest polysilicon expansion plans, Hemlock Semiconductor has announced plans to invest approximately US$3 billion in the coming years to significantly expand polysilicon production. The new plans include expansion of production at its Hemlock, Michigan facility (US$1 billion) as well as the construction of a new US$1.2 billion polysilicon plant based in Clarksville, Tennessee at a new Greenfield site. Both projects will start immediately.

ersol Solar Energy will undergo a major expansion in terms of production following the announcement of a planned €530 million in investment from parent company the Bosch Group, which acquired 50.45% of ersol’s shares in June 2008. The investment will be spent on construction of a new manufacturing facility for crystalline solar cells adjacent to the existing research facility in Arnstadt, Germany, a module manufacturing ‘shop,’ and a new administrative building and expansion of the research facility, all of which are expected to generate an estimated 1,100 new jobs.

Concentrix Solar officially inaugurated its production line for concentrator solar photovoltaic modules during ceremonies held Friday at its Freiburg, Germany, location. The fully automated 25-MW capacity facility, which can be expanded to 100 MW, has been running since September and shipping product since October. The factory is one of the few industrial-scale CPV manufacturing lines in operation.