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Financially challenged Q-Cells said it will restructure its finances in 2 key steps to avoid payment defaults to bondholders. The company confirmed 2011 revenue forecast of around €1 billion but said total losses for the year had yet to be concluded. Q-Cells guided a further decline in revenue in 2012 to approximately €865 million. A return to profitability was not expected until 2014, though this would only occur should all three outstanding convertible bond renegotiations prove successful.
Harnessing its R&D into both c-Si and a-Si thin-film technologies, Moser Baer Solar said that it would upgrade its solar cell processes using metal and intrinsic layer semiconductor technology (MIST) to achieve average cell conversion efficiencies of 21% and join the few cell producers at the top table above 20%.
An RD&E collaboration between DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions and Yingli Green Energy has been disclosed. Although the companies reiterated previous collaboration on Yingli Green’s first generation ‘Panda’ cell technology now entering volume production, the companies are also working together to customize metallization materials for the Panda series modules, made with an N-type cell design, which is claimed to achieve a conversion efficiency of over 19%, based on current lab testing.
Optomec, performance additive systems manufacturer, has announced it is expanding its advanced applications lab and product development facility in St. Paul, Minn, US. The facility houses its Aerosol Jet deposition system that enables the production of higher efficiency solar cells than is possible through traditional screen-printing techniques.
Verified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Q-Cells said it had set new conversion efficiency records for multicrystalline and quasi-mono solar modules. A module with 60 multicrystalline solar cells, using its ‘Q.ANTUM’ cell concept was reported to have achieved 18.5% efficiency, up from a record Q-Cells claimed it had achieved of 18.1% last year. The market introduction of the Q.ANTUM solar cells and modules is planned for 2012 with pilot production at its advanced facility in Thalheim, Germany already underway.
A broad-range of PV equipment suppliers are expected to have reported record revenues for 2011, after a year of continued capacity expansions. However, that is expected to be contrasted in a significant cut-back in capital expenditures in 2012 as the PV industry struggles with over capacity and falling prices, according to the latest NPD Solarbuzz PV Equipment Quarterly report.
Schmid Group and Schott Solar’s new high-performance solar cell has achieved an efficiency rate of 19.9%. The joint-manufactured cell uses ‘quasimono’ sillicium wafers, a primarily monocrystalline wafer with a very minor rate of polycrystalline structure. Schott’s crystallization ovens produce the crystals, while Schmid creates the cells.
CVD Equipment advised that its new orders in 2011 totaled over US$36 million, 44% more than the US$25 million received in 2010. New orders in the CVD/FN division of production and research systems was approximately US$30.5 million, an increase, according to CVD, of 45% compared to 2010 order levels. CVD expects high demand to continue in 2012.
Taiwan-based crystalline solar cell producer, Neo Solar Power (NSP) has reported December, 2011 revenue of approximately US$21.94 million (NT $663 million), down significantly from the previous quarter and year-on-year. Total revenue for 2011 reached approximately US$600.2 million, down from US$634.4 million in 2010.
Hanwha Solar America has placed an order for a multi-chamber research tool with plasma etch and deposition tool manufacturer Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology. The PlasmaPro System100 will be installed at Hanwha Solar America’s Advanced PV Research Laboratory in Santa Clara, California and enable research into new materials, cell concepts and process characterisation for crystalline silicon cell development.
