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Thin Film: News
Tokyo Electron enters thin film PV equipment market
18 February 2008
Tokyo Electron (TEL) has established a new business, Tokyo Electron PV Limited, with Sharp Corporation to develop and commercialize high throughput plasma CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) systems for the thin film silicon photovoltaics market based on TEL’s experience in the large flat panel display industry.
First Solar targets 1 gigawatt production by end of 2009
15 February 2008
Without the current handicap of polysilicon shortages, thin film CdTe PV manufacturer First Solar has revealed that it expects annual capacity to reach approximately 1 gigawatt by the end of 2009 with the expected full ramp of all four plants in Malaysia going to plan. Currently, First Solar has completed, slightly ahead of schedule, Plant
1 in Malaysia with equipment installation and line qualification
ongoing. Plant 1 is expected to ramp production in the second quarter
of 2008.
Read more >>Thin film gigawatt fab arriving soon, hints Applied Materials
13 February 2008
Applied Materials executives gave a strong hint that the era of a ‘Giga’ watt thin film solar production plant using its SunFab manufacturing line technology was close at hand during its first quarter conference call with financial analysts yesterday. Read more >>
Ascent Solar plans first 25MW production by end of 2009
12 February 2008
Ascent Solar Technologies has purchased a manufacturing facility in Thornton, Colorado that will house several 25MW thin-film flexible solar module lines. The first 25MW production line is planned for completion by year-end 2009 and will be ramped to 100MW by 2011, the company said. Read more >>
Emcore to IPO CPV business on back of strong orders
12 February 2008
Emcore said in its most recent quarterly financial conference call that its backlog in orders for its concentrated PV technology stood at $142 million. This did not include the provisional deal recently announced to supply 700MW of solar power systems for a proposed South West US energy utility project or a $300 million order placed by a Korea-based energy company.
Read more >>Moser Baer India places $1.5 billion thin-film solar equipment order
12 February 2008
Moser Baer India Limited, via its wholly-owned subsidiary PV Technologies India Limited, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) worth more than $1.5 billion with an unidentified equipment supplier for thin-film PV equipment.
Read more >>Global Solar Energy claims new CIGS performance and manufacturing figures
28 January 2008
Global Solar Energy has claimed that in December, 2007 it became the
first Copper Indium Gallium diSelenide (CIGS) thin-film solar
manufacturer to achieve an average of 10 percent solar cell efficiency
on a flexible substrate over ‘several production runs.’
Read more >>Spire offers foundry service to solar concentrator companies
23 January 2008
Spire Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Spire Corporation, is to offer a
contract design and manufacturing service to manufacturers of solar
concentrator cells at its 50,000 square foot facility in Hudson, New
Hampshire. Under its ‘Captive Custom Capacity’ initiative, Spire
Semiconductor will leverage its production experience in gallium
arsenide (GaAs) solar cells, wafer epitaxy and other thin film products
and has an expandable capacity of 50MW per annum.
Read more >>AOS Solar targets major PV cost reductions with silicon-on-glass thin film technology
22 January 2008
AOS Solar, a thin film silicon-on-glass start-up of
2005, claims that it is aiming to achieve a 90 percent reduction in the
amount of silicon its technology requires with a 50 percent energy
budget reduction and a reduction in capital equipment costs of 50
percent. This combination of crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV efficiency
with thin film manufacturing economics will be presented for the first
time at the www.ibfconferences.com nanotechnology investment forum in Palm Springs, February 6. Global Warming Solutions claims further efficiency breakthroughs with LETG technology
10 January 2008
Global Warming Solutions, Inc. has said that it has made further
efficiency improvements with its Light Electric Thermal Generator
(LETG) technology with the development of dual-sided laminated solar
panels.
Read more >>
