Mark Osborne

Thin film manufacturer First Solar has established an operating subsidiary in Cape Town, South Africa. The move follows a recent swathe of large utility-scale PV announcements in South Africa, as part of the country’s first round of renewable energy project bidding.

Having recently introduced its latest ENLIGHT polyolefin PV module encapsulant films, Dow Chemical has said it will be further developing the films and adding manufacturing capacity at its integrated site in Schkopau, Germany, in 2013.

CIS thin-film manufacturer Solar Frontier has won a contract to supply 92,000 modules to Mitsui & Co, continuing its success in securing supply deals for utility-scale PV projects in Japan.

Believed to be the largest solar project in the Caribbean, a 24MW project in Guayama, Puerto Rico, which was recently completed, had been supplied modules for the project by Yingli Green.

A small JV company, established between Tokyo Electron (TEL) and Sharp Corporation in 2008 to develop plasma CVD systems for use in thin-film silicon solar photovoltaic cells has been dissolved by TEL.

Although shipments increased 5.8% in Q3 2012, compared with the previous quarter, China-based PV manufacturer, ReneSola had declining ASP’s that resulted in revenue down 6.4% q-on-q.

ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe has joined the Solliance (ECN, imec, TNO, Holst Centre, TU/e, Forschungszentrum Jülich) R&D alliance that is focused on organic photovoltaics (OPV) thin film technologies.

Continued restructuring at Applied Materials as it struggles to resize its solar business has led to senior executives Mark Pinto and Tom Edman leaving the company as its EES and Display divisions are merged.

China Sunergy reported Q3 2012 financial results just in-line with guidance but needed support from emerging markets such as Australia to do so.

Vesuvius, which provides an extended range of refractory products used in the manufacturing of thin film and polycrystalline solar panels has introduced the ‘SOLAR Crucible MLC,’ a crucible used for the fusion and the crystallization of polysilicon in the manufacturing of mono-like silicon ingots. The system has been specially engineered to match mono-like special requirements.