Your daily dose of Photovoltaic Technology Developments and Solar News

ReneSola has signed a six-year 525MW wafer supply agreement with Gintech Energy Corporation of Taiwan. The supply agreement is expected to commence by mid-2008. "The recent wafer supply agreement with Gintech further demonstrates our commitment to expanding ReneSola's reach within key markets and strengthens our base of long-term customers," said Mr. Xianshou Li, ReneSola's Chief Executive Officer. Read more >>

SunPower Corporation has said that its Gen 3 solar cell technology that is currently under development has reached cell efficiencies of 23.4 percent using standard five-inch wafers. SunPower claims that this is a new world record for a large area solar cell. "This is a step function increase from our 22 percent efficient Gen 2 technology, which has been in mass production since last year," said Tom Werner, CEO of SunPower Corp. "Credit for this achievement goes to our world- class research and development team led by Dick Swanson and Bill Mulligan, as well as to our talented engineering group." Read more >>

Nanometrics said in a brief statement that it had acquired Tevet Process Control Technologies, an Israeli based film thickness integrated metrology (IM) tool supplier. The deal was an all-cash transaction but further details were not disclosed. Read more >>

Solar Semiconductor, a rapidly growing producer of high-quality photovoltaic (PV) modules, today announced a strategic partnership with Motech Industries, Inc., a premium cell manufacturer. This multi-year strategic partnership is for the supply of approximately 120MW of cells. Read more >>

Sunovia announced yesterday that it had completed its next round of financing and was devoting these resources to the company’s plans for manufacturing CdTe solar cells. More than $25 million has been invested into the companies' core CdTe research, development and design for the high-throughput CdTe-based manufacturing facility. Sunovia’s move to mainstream commercial solar is a departure from its background as a supplier of niche solar products for NASA and the military. Read more >>

JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd. has signed a long-term silicon wafer supply agreement with Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon Technology Development Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of GCL Silicon Technology Holdings Ltd. The agreement will see GCL supply JA Solar with 6,000MW of silicon wafers from April 2008 until December 2015 at fixed prices, with delivery of the wafers already in progress. Read more >>

WACKER SCHOTT Solar GmbH, a joint venture of Wacker Chemie AG and SCHOTT Solar GmbH, has said that its new silicon solar wafer plant in Jena, Germany is expected to reach 50MW in capacity by fall 2008. The new facility took six months to build at a cost of €50 million. Read more >>

Accompanying the news that SunPower is increasing solar cell capacity by 150 percent this year was the mention in its first-quarter financial results that it expects to meet its goal of 30 percent gross margins by the end of 2008 on the back of lower polysilicon prices, higher cell efficiency and thinner wafers. Read more >>

In announcing financial results for the first quarter of 2008, SunPower Corporation stated that it would be increasing solar cell capacity by 150 percent in 2008, compared to capacity levels in 2007. The company also said that nearly half of its cell production was its ‘Gen2’ solar cell technology that has a minimum conversion efficiency of 22 percent. “Our proprietary technology delivers the highest output per unit area of any commercially available solar system and we intend to leverage this technology by aggressively expanding our solar cell production by more than 150 percent in 2008 compared to 2007,” commented Tom Werner, SunPower's CEO, in a financial statement. Read more >>

Conergy has said that its initial ramp of its new €250 million integrated solar cell fab in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany, now has approximately 90 percent of the production tools installed and is qualified for production. Read more >>