During EU PVSEC, Meyer Burger’s subsidiary, Roth & Rau will be presenting a new front and rear side c-Si solar cell process that employs nickel within busbar metallisation for electrical contacts, which is claimed to save on silver usage between 50 and 70%, dependent on the contact technology deployed.
According to informed sources close to those involved, Jerry Stokes, president of Suntech Europe has agreed a settlement with senior management of Suntech Power Holdings to leave the company. Stokes joined the company in 2006. Suntech's newly appointed chief executive officer, David King recently set about restructuring senior management roles with the exit of Andrew Beebe, Suntech’s chief commercial officer and regional heads reporting directly to King.
Although heavily hyped as a low-cost alternative to conventional oil-based PV backsheet materials, start-up BioSolar said that it was to develop a new bio-based backsheet material that would aim to be of even lower cost in order to capture more customers. Back in March, 2011 the company had said it was supplying sample material for PV module manufacturers based in Asia for evaluation.
Growatt North America has unveiled a new ‘High Frequency Series’ of residential solar PV string inverters, and their light commercial ‘TL3 Series’ string inverters during SPI 2012. The HF Series inverters are initially offered in 2.0kW, 2.5kW, and 3.0kW power classes, while the TL3 Series inverters are initially offered in 10kW, 12kW, 18kW, and 20kW power classes.
PV equipment specialist Despatch Industries is set to launch its new Safire firing furnace and accompanying dryer technology at EU PVSEC in Frankfurt, Germany next week. The company also noted that PV manufacturer, Nice Sun PV Co had completed high-volume production testing of the Safire furnace that demonstrated a 0.1% absolute improvement in overall efficiency on a baseline product and up to 0.13% on some product types.
In keeping with recent years, Taiwan-based solar cell manufacturer Neo Solar Power (NSP) is launching several new cells that follow a different path to high-efficiency, while claiming to be the low-cost option. Being showcased at EU PVSEC in Frankfurt next week is NSP’s polycrystalline Super18 solar cell and its mono-crystalline Black19+ with a maximum efficiency of 19.4%, all accomplished without the use of selective emitters or rear-side passivation technologies.
As PV manufacturing capacity continues to exceed demand, Suntech Power Holdings is attempting to better marry the two and in doing so lower costs by optimizing utilizations rates. With recent management shuffles, it’s the turn of its manufacturing operations with a ‘temporary reduction in solar cell capacity to 1.8GW.
Increased losses posted only a few weeks ago has forced Trina Solar to streamline its business operations to reduce operating costs that include job losses, according to a statement posted on its website. The restructuring comes after reporting a catalogue of woes in its second quarter financial results as well as a management reshuffle and the exit of its CCO. Management said that the key action was to separate its PV module operations from its PV systems business operations.
Stefan Quandt, BMW board member and one of the richest people in the world, according to the Forbes list of billionaires, will become the majority owner of German-based PV module manufacturer, Solarwatt which is currently insolvency proceedings since mid-June.
Bigger is always better when referring to the US and this is also becoming increasingly applicable to solar modules. At Solar Power International 2012, a number of manufacturers have launched 300 watt (W) plus modules that are specifically catering for the booming utility-scale market.
