Breeze and shine: Signet Solar to supply Moncada Energy with PV modules for wind-farm deployments

Signet Solar has signed a deal with Moncada Energy Group to supply at least 7.7 MW of large-area Gen-8.5 amorphous-silicon thin-film photovoltaic modules this year for deployment in the Italian renewable energy company's wind farms.

Moncada, which has more than 100 MW of renewable energy projects in Europe, will install the TFPV modules in large solar arrays beneath the towers of its wind farms to permit the panels and the wind turbines to use the same infrastructure to collect energy for, what the Sicilian company calls, "double-harvesting renewable energy."

CEO Salvatore Moncada says that his company's "deployments will be the world’s first large-scale installation of certified Gen-8.5 size (2.2 x 2.6 m) modules. We believe that using these large modules in solar farms will allow for the lowest cost structure per installed watt due to the advances Signet Solar has made in thin-film technology and module efficiency." 

Signet's managing director, Gunter Ziegenbalg, noted that "we are thoroughly excited to work with Moncada Energy Group, which falls perfectly into our strategy of being the world’s leader in providing thin-film PV solutions for solar farms. We believe this kind of commitment is a testament to our extremely strong quality and reliability, and our customer-first approach."

The companies said the supply agreement will continue through 2010 and beyond. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Both Signet and Moncada are also purchasers of Applied Materials' SunFab turnkey a-Si TFPV module-manufacturing lines. Signet's first factory near Dresden has been in volume production mode since October 2008 (and will fabricate the TÜV-certified 5.7-m2 panels for the Moncada deployments), while the Sicilian company's 40-MW thin-film factory is scheduled to come online in 2010.