Your daily dose of photovoltaic technology developments and solar news

Meyer Burger is bulking up its business and product profolio with an all-share acquisition of 3S Industries, valuing 3S at approximately 300 million Swiss francs. The merger will create a company with 2008 pro forma revenue of approximately 557 million Swiss francs (US$541 million) and a workforce comprising more than 900 employees, making it the third-largest PV equipment supplier, based on VLSI Research’s Top 10 equipment rankings for 2008. Meyer Burger had been ranked the 6th largest supplier by revenue in 2008. Only Applied Materials and Oerlikon Solar had higher sales last year.

To spread its global influence, the 3S Group has created 3S Industries, a subsidiary group in Barcelona, Spain. Previously a representative office of the company, 3S Industries will now provide sales and service to people in Latin America, Greece and Africa.

3S Industries and CEA Liten (Laboratory of Innovation for New Energy Technologies) -- the French technological research organization -- have signed a three-year agreement to collaborate on the development of PV modules based on silicon-based heterojunction solar cells and the tools needed to produce this type of module.

3S Swiss Solar Systems has delivered a solar-module turnkey production system to Emmvee Photovoltaics, which has begun manufacturing on the 25-MW line at its factory near Bangalore, India.

3S Industries Group is expanding its operations in Asia as it expects significant future growth for its automatic string soldering machines, laminating lines, testers and turnkey solar module production lines in the region. 3S said it was establishing subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Singapore and an office in Kunshan, China.

Housed in a highly modern, 1,500m² building, 3S Industries AG’s new Service & Technology Center in Freiburg was opened today amid much celebration. The centre will offer services such as technical support, pilot assembly and certification of modules, as well as training seminars tailored individually to the needs of customers, as well as the services of a new semi-automatic module line.

3S Swiss Solar Systems, a subsidiary of 3S Industries AG, received a €11.6 million order from a German customer in Brandenburg to deliver a partial line for the highly automated production of solar modules. The German organization has been producing solar modules on an automatic laminating line from 3S since 2006 and has placed this order to further expand its production.

Somont has received an order for delivery of its “RAPID” automatic string soldering systems to the value of €14.5 million, the company has announced. The 3S Industries AG subsidiary will deliver the machines to REC’s new solar factory in Tuas, Singapore, where they will be installed at the site and will be instrumental in REC’s aim of reaching capacity of 740MW of wafers, 550MW of solar cells and 590MW of solar modules by 2012.

Eights months after 3S Swiss Solar Systems first entered into business with semi-automatic production lines, it has delivered its first line to the Alicante-based Eurener Energia Solar, which had previously been operating with the manual 3S production line since 2006. Eurener has installed a semi-automatic 20MW line, which includes an automatic string soldering station from Somont, a laminating line from 3S and a module tester from Pasan.

3S turnkey automated production lines contain several world technological firsts and provide the most innovative solutions currently available on the market for solar module producers. Our concept is based on new machines which we have developed to replace the robots currently in use.

Attenuated light measurement for production

The Pasan Module Flasher HighLIGHT LILMT is designed to flash on a maximal surface of 2 x 2m at two different light intensities without any reduction of spectral quality. The equipment meets the growing interest in the behaviour of modules under diffuse light, which is illustrated by the recent evolution of IEC-standards. The HighLIGHT LILMT is equipped with four Xenon tubes. Two of them flash at 1000 W/m², the other two flash through the attenuation masks, typically 200 W/m².

SpectroINSPECT is the first spectrometer in Pasan’s measurement devices product range which allows the measurement of the spectral content of pulsed solar simulators. This device may be used by the module manufactures for a periodic quality check of their testing equipment as defined by their internal quality insurance procedures. Institutes will also rely on this easy-to-use spectrometer in order to determine the IEC compliance of their products.

The new 3S Somont stringing system CERTUS is the choice for production capacities from 50 – 100 MW per year. The CERTUS features a modular concept to match the desired capacity requirements. CERTUS integrates all elements needed at the front-end of the module production line with new, state-of-the art technology for the stringer, in-line string testing, matrix lay-up, interconnection, matrix testing and lay-up on the glass plate.

The NG Series is the new Laminating Line of 3S. It builds further on the well known technology of 3S for the encapsulation of mono and poly crystalline as well as thin film solar modules. Our target for the development was highest technical availability, user friendliness, production flexibility and lowest total cost of ownership. The NG Series combines all these aspects, by keeping the well known advantages of the existing 3S lamination program.

Product Briefing Outline: The MegaSlate Solar roof system from 3S Swiss Solar Systems is a pioneering, architecturally aesthetic BIPV concept designed for new builds and roof retrofits. The latest version of this technology enables an integrated, energy-producing roofing system which combines PV with solar heat - meaning home owners can produce electricity with the panels and warm up used water to support their heating systems. This product is certified by the TÜV, tested for wind and snow load, as well as for resistance to hail, offering optimal weather protection.

Product Briefing Outline: Swiss Solar Systems has introduced self-adjusting clamping bars for 3S laminating lines that are intended to improve the lifetime of the membrane of all 3S laminators that results in a reduction of consumables and increases machine up-time as the time required for membrane replacement is reduced.

Product Briefing Outline: The new 3S Swiss Solar Systems AG XL Laminating Line is designed to provide a fully-automated high volume lamination process of solar modules at highest speed: cycle times can be reduced up to 40%, according to the company. The system has a total capacity of up to 34 modules per hour which equals an annual capacity of up to 60MWp. It combines two vacuum chambers with the patented hybrid heating plate of the 3S Laminator S3622 with a cooling press. The two vacuum chambers are separately controlled in terms of evacuation, ventilation and heating. The system can handle both c-Si and thin film sizes.