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Updated: According to a report published by greentechsolar, CIGS maker MiaSolé has let 10% of its workforce go, with most of the layoffs taking place in the engineering and equipment design divisions. The report claims that a company spokesperson verified the layoffs, but did not specify on the extent of the reduction in the workforce.
Solar distributor Donauer Solartechnik is, like several others in the industry, aiming to capitalize on emerging markets by opening a branch in Muscat, Oman. This branch will be the first step in the establishment of a sales and service network and will be directed by investor Saleh Ahmed Al Badi, chairman and president at NAS Oman international LLC, with whom Donauer has a joint-venture agreement.
UK-based organic thin film start-up, Eight19 has installed roll-to-roll printing equipment at its Cambridge, UK headquarters as a preliminary move towards volume production, as reported by PV-Tech’s sister-site, Solar Power Portal UK. Thought to be the largest of its kind in Europe, the bespoke facility includes a multi-station roll-to-roll fabrication machine which is designed to manufacture solar substrates. Eight19 expects to have the first of its commercial printed plastic solar modules available in 2013.
Interim Nanosolar CEO, Geoff Tate has been replaced and returns to retirement, less than 2 years after taking the job, according to a statement from the CIGS thin film start-up. Nanosolar said that another recent management addition, Ms Eugenia Corrales takes over the CEO position. Corrales was said to have been recruited by Tate and had managed all Operations, as well as Engineering, Purchasing and Planning functions.
Solar Frontier has defied the thin-film doom merchants by successfully bidding for the role of module supplier for enXco’s 100MWp+ PV plant in California. The agreement refers to the supply of up to 150MWp of Solar Frontier’s CIS modules, and the project, when completed, will be the largest thin-film CI(G)S plant in the world.
Citing growing world demand for environmentally-friendly production equipment cleaning gases within the flat panel display and silicon thin-film photovoltaic industries, Solvay and Air Liquide have formed a joint venture to provide onsite fluorine production. The partners claim to be able to offer significant economic benefits based on Solvay’s modular fluorine production technology.
Announced in conjunction with the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, cadmium-telluride (CdTe) thin film leader, First Solar has achieved a new total area efficiency record for its standard-sized modules of 14.4%. NREL was said to have confirmed the record, which was previously held by First Solar at 13.4%. Actual volume production of modules with efficiencies between 14.5-15%, are expected in 2015. First Solar reached volume production of modules with an efficiency of 11.7% in 2011.
Abound Solar and Solar Integration Systems India (Solarsis) revealed that they had commissioned a 1MW solar PV plant in Kadiri, Andhra Pradesh, India on January 14. The project was commissioned under the Rooftop and Other Small Solar Power Generation Plant (RPSSGP) scheme managed by IREDA under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). It is the first project in the state of Andhra Pradesh to use Abound’s CdTe thin-film modules.
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.
A 11.7 MWp PV power plant, completed late last year by Masdar PV in Thuringia, Germany, used dual-junction ‘micromorph’ silicon technology and amorphous technology with over half being full sized modules.
