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First quarter 2013 new order intake at manufacturing equipment specialist Singulus Technologies may have been at a low level but sales in the quarter increased to €22.8 million.
Diversified manufacturing equipment specialist Manz reported a 13% increase in first quarter 2013 sales, reaching €49.8 million.
US-based SoloPower is to suspend operations at its US$340 million plant in Portland, Oregon in June, laying off 29 employees.
An aqueous-based silver nanoparticle ink technology developed in the last 10 years by chemicals giant Beyer has been acquired by high-tech chemicals specialist Clariant International.
US-based chemical corporation Dow has announced the completion and shipping of its Enlight polyolefin encapsulant film production line in Schkopau, Germany.
An 11.6MW project in Rajasthan, India, has been commissioned by thin-film CIGS manufacturer MiaSolé and Indian developer KSK Energy Ventures.
PV manufacturer DayStar Technologies has announced the appointment of Lorne Roseborough as its new CEO and interim chairman.
The New York-based US Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium (PVMC) has formed a partnership with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to improve manufacturing processes for thin film CIGS PV cells and modules.
Diversification strategies at equipment specialist, Manz coupled have led to weak solar segment sales in 2012 have resulted in the sector only accounting for 5% of its order backlog.
UniCredit Leasing has added Solar Frontier’s CIS thin film modules to its bankability list of PV suppliers after quality tests were undertaken by Fraunhofer ISE.
In collaboration with the SUNY NanoCollege and U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium, flexible CIGS thin-film start-up, Magnolia Solar has claimed it has demonstrated a solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 13%. The company did not state aperture area dimensions.
Chinese manufacturer Suntech has announced the resolution of its ongoing dispute with its partner GSF Capital.
Flexible-CIGS thin-film start-up SoloPower said it would be restructuring its operations which will involve a workforce reduction as it approaches volume production at its plant in Oregon, USA.
Germany-based industrial laser specialist InnoLas Systems GmbH said that the company achieved revenue of €40 million (US$52.9 million) in 2012, which was 60% higher than the previous year.
Nanosolar, a US-based CIGS thin-film solar cell and module manufacturer, has confirmed that it cut its workforce last week with media reports citing up to a 75% reduction.
Solar Frontier strengthened its position as the closest thin-film PV module manufacturer competitor to First Solar in 2012, posting record revenue of US$833 million (JPY78.2 billion).
Flisom, a Swiss company which develops technologies for manufacturing of flexible thin film CIGS solar modules (copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide), reports that it has raised an unspecified but “substantially large” investment to further develop its technology and build a production plant with an annual capacity of 15MW in Switzerland.
As part of its technology roadmap to boost high-efficiency CIGS cells, the Competence Centre Thin-Film- and Nanotechnology for Photovoltaics Berlin, PVcomB, has ordered an active selenization system from Smit Ovens BV.
CIGS thin-film module manufacturer, TSMC Solar has boosted its champion module efficiencies to 15.1%, a 0.9% increase barely five-months after reporting efficiencies of 14.2% in September, 2012.
A follow-up US$12 million in funding from the US Energy Department under the SunShot Initiative has been issued with the intention of reducing the time of lab to fab solar cell conversion efficiencies.
Scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have developed thin-film solar cells on flexible polymer foils with a new record efficiency of 20.4% for converting sunlight into electricity.
California-based XsunX has announced it has begun processing CIS films with its recently completed CIGSolar thin-film PV solar cell evaporation system.
Thin-film product developer DayStar Technologies has entered into an agreement to acquire seven solar projects from Arxikon Construction Company in Greece.
Venture capital investments in solar plunged to US$992 million in 2012 compared to US$1.9 billion the previous year, representing the lowest amount since 2007, reports consulting firm Mercom Capital.
Chinese thin-film maunfacturer Hanergy, has confirmed its acquisition of US-based CIGS thin-film manufacturer MiaSolé.
Solar Frontier has broken the record for CIS thin-film solar cell conversion efficiency using a sputtering and selenization process. The current CIS efficiency record at 20.3% was set with the co-evaporation processes.
Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) has expanded into France with the acquisition of a 50% stake in EDF Energies Nouvelles’ (EDF EN) 55MW plant located near Nancy.
Stion Corporation, a thin-film manufacturer headquartered in California, has secured around US$25 million to support its plans to expand its production facility, media reports reveal.
Struggling flexible CIGS thin-film firm, Global Solar Energy said it had reduced its workforce by 70% as it continues to seek a buyer.
CIS thin-film manufacturer Solar Frontier has won a contract to supply 92,000 modules to Mitsui & Co, continuing its success in securing supply deals for utility-scale PV projects in Japan.
High-efficiency thin-film solar module manufacturer Stion received a US$2 million award from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for its tandem junction technology.
California-based XsunX has completed the assembly of its new CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) thin-film cell manufacturing system.
CIGS solar panel company Nanosolar completed a 10.63MW solar project in Alfarrasi, Spain, the company’s largest installation to date.
A significant fall in orders and bookings within Manz’s solar division were partially offset by increased business within its display division, the specialist equipment supplier has reported.
Equipment supplier Singulus Technologies reported Q3 2012 sales of €83.5 million and negative earnings before earnings and tax of -€10.9 million.
Showa Shell Sekiyu has announced plans to develop a 2MW PV plant on the rooftop of Solar Frontier’s Kunitomi manufacturing facility in southern Japan.
Cost cutting measures and inventory write-downs at PV equipment supplier, Singulus Technologies will amount to €43.3 million as the company reported preliminary third quarter 2012 financial results.
Solar panel manufacturers need to acquire innovative production equipment in order to cut costs, increase margins, and offer differentiated products. This is the finding of a new report from Lux Research’s Solar Components Intelligence service, the group has released its latest report, Turning Lemons into Lemonade: Opportunities in the Turbulent Photovoltaic Equipment Market.
MidAmerican Solar and First Solar, developers of the 550MW Topaz solar farm in California, have installed the project’s millionth PV unit.
Saint-Gobain has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with HRH Prince Faisal Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, to set up a high-tech company in the solar energy sector in Saudi Arabia.
Expanding its reach into Central and South American markets, CIS thin-film market leader, Solar Frontier has supplied modules for part of a 5MW Iberdrola built PV power plant. The Cerro Prieto project is owned by CFE, the state-owned electric utility company of Mexico, and is claimed to be the largest PV installation in the country, when operational by the end of 2012.
Solar Frontier’s Kunitomi solar panel production plant recently received ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certifications. Both certifications are essential for Italian PV projects to be eligible for the country’s feed-in tariff, while other countries such as the UK, France and Mexico are also considering such requirements.
In its newly released mergers and acquisition report for Q3 2012, Mercom Capital Group found that venture capital (VC) funding in the solar industry was at its lowest point since 2008 totaling only US$72 million in 14 deals, compared to US$376 million in 32 deals in Q2 2012.
A who’s who of select research institutions in the Eindhoven-Leuven region of Belgium have teamed-up to boost the competitiveness of CIGS thin-film technology with conventional crystalline silicon technology that would ultimately support the overall cost reduction of solar energy. Working under the Solliance initiative, the Solar Flare project includes ECN, TNO, imec, Holst Centre, TU/e and the University of Hasselt/IMO, which will also aim to make thin-film PV a viable alternative to Si PV technologies.
XsunX advised that it expects to complete the assembly of its CIGSolar thin-film PV cell evaporation system this month. The company employed a fast-track completion schedule in order to accelerate its technology demonstration and marketing efforts. This summer, XsunX received equity financing through Ironridge Energy, which allowed it to focus on building a demonstration of the CIGSolar thin-film PV cell evaporation system while simultaneously forming technology marketing operations in its new Irvin, California, facility.
Already incorrectly type-cast by the mainstream media as the illegitimate love child of failed copper indium gallium di selenide (CIGS) thin-film manufacturer, Solyndra, flexible CIGS thin-film start-up SoloPower has officially opened its first volume production plant in Portland, Oregon. Unlike other CIGS start-ups, SoloPower uses proprietary roll-to-roll processes via electro-deposition processing as its differentiator.
Following on from its introduction at Intersolar Europe, 4JET’s new laser scribing system designed for both CIGS and a-Si flexible thin-film solar cells will take centre stage at its booth during EU PVSEC. The new roll-to-roll monolithic integrated process is claimed to provide advantages over connecting individual small cell shingles to a module.
Continuing its efforts to become a key development partner and supplier of production systems to the PV industry, Singulus Technologies is using EU PVSEC this year to showcase new machine concepts and process technologies that are designed to increase cell efficiencies and reduce production costs for thin-film and c-Si solar cells.
Being a CEO at Nanosolar has proved to be a short-lived affair on numerous occasions since the departure of its co-founder and first CEO, Martin Roscheisen.
The company said that Eugenia Corrales, who joined the company in May, 2010, to serve as the executive vice president of engineering and operations, but became CEO in January 2012, had departed the company to pursue other ventures. Corrales had replaced Geoff Tate who was said to have retired after barely two years at the company.
Hanergy is to launch thin-film systems at IKEA stores in the UK following its recent partnership with Q-Cells’ subsidiary Solibro. Hanergy will be conducting three workshops at the IKEA Milton Keynes store this Sunday. IKEA has already distributed nearly 70,000 messages to its British members in order to recommend Hanergy solar systems for homeowners.
