Having recently reporting full-year solar cell and module shipment guidance of between 2.7GW and 2.9GW, JA Solar is also increasing solar cell capacity from 2.5GW to 2.8GW to better match module capacity levels.
A DEK Solar existing customer, Nice Sun PV Co., Ltd, located in Zhangzhu, Yixing City, China has ordered several DEK Solar Apollo metallisation platforms to integrate into its existing DEK Solar PV 1200 lines to increase capacity of solar cell production. The deal was said to have been struck on the first day of SNEC 2014, held last month in Shanghai, China.
According to renewable energy engineering firm, 8.2 Consultancy, the initial 100MW of the potential 1GW Quaid-e-Azam solar park in Punjab, Pakistan, is under construction.
Taiwan-based PV materials specialist, Giga Solar Materials Corp said it was gaining market share in the silver paste sector and expected to ship 210 tons of front-side Ag (silver) metallization paste in 2014, up from just 40 tons in the previous year.
Taiwan-based CIGS thin-film producer, TSMC Solar has attracted Dr. Rommel Noufi, a leading CIGS technologist and pioneer at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to consult with the company on future R&D activities.
One of the last remaining a-Si thin-film manufacturing plants in production globally and the last in Germany is to close with the loss of 160 jobs at Masdar PV in Ichterhausen.
PV equipment specialist, Meyer Burger Technology is streamlining its R&D activities at its Roth & Rau subsidiaries technology and product centre in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Germany with the loss of around 120 positions.
Major monocrystalline wafer producer, LONGi Silicon Materials is entering the PV module market to demonstrate and promote the significant cost reductions achieved in monocrytalline wafer production and highlight the performance and life-time yield superiority of monocrystalline products over multicrystalline.
Non-silicon mono wafer costs are plummeting and could challenge the predominance of monocrystalline silicon wafers, according to the head of a leading Chinese wafer producer.