Your daily dose of Photovoltaic Technology Developments and Solar News

Spire Corporation has received a contract from Bogoroditsk Plant of Techno-Chemical Products (BTCP), a chemical company, to provide a photovoltaic module assembly line for the company's operations in Russia. The semi-automated crystalline silicon module manufacturing line will be capable of producing up to 12MW of solar modules per year, according to Spire. Located in the Tula region of Russia, this will be BTCP’s first PV operation. Read more >>

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. has signed an agreement with Hanau Energies SAS to supply a 4.5MW building integrated PV system (BIPV) to a farm located in Alsace, France.  The 4.5MW installation is anticipated to be completed by January 2009 with an additional 1MW already being planned. Read more >>

Yingli Green Energy has said that it has entered into a new sales contract with IBC Solar AG to deliver a minimum of 35MW of PV modules to IBC from May 2008 to December 2008 for use in projects based in Germany. Read more >>

Honeywell has introduced a new backing material for the protection of photovoltaic solar cells used in modules that will be located in harsh or humid type conditions. Honeywell’s ‘PowerShield’ PV325 has a traditional five-layer design that includes two outer protective layers... Read more >>

Global solar technology giant SMA Technologie AG, the parent company of SMA America, Inc., has broken ground on an 82,000-square-foot solar inverter manufacturing plant in Kassel, Germany. The new facility is designed to triple SMA’s current production capacity to meet the global demand for its solar inverters. 
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HelioVolt Corporation has teamed with Architectural Glass & Aluminum Co. to develop and offer building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) products for its thin-film PV modules. According to NanoMarkets, a market research firm, BIPV products are one of the largest market opportunities for thin-film products, and are expected to constitute about $800 million in 2011.  Read more >>

CPV solar cell manufacturer, EMCORE has received a $28 million order for 70MW of concentrator solar cell receivers to be deployed in various solar plant installations by ES System of Gwang-Ju, South Korea. Production has already commenced and shipments are scheduled to occur over the next 24 months, according to EMCORE. Read more >>

A start-up, SUNRGI, based in the U.S. has claimed that its ‘Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics’ (XCPV) solar system technology will be able to meet electricity generating costs of 5 cents per kWh (kilowatt hour), making it competitive with conventional energy generation technologies. Read more >>

California-based OptiSolar has contributed to the state’s aim of sourcing 20% of its power from renewable sources with the planned establishment of a solar power farm in San Luis Obispo County. Located on the northwest of the Clarissa Plains, the 550MW PV farm’s location... Read more >>

eSolar has announced that it has closed $130 million in funding from Google.org, Idealab and Oak Investment Partners, among others. The thermal power plant manufacturer aims to begin construction and deployment of pre-fabricated power plants that achieve economies of scale at 33MW. Read more >>