Optimising its PV5400 Series encapsulant for use with the Bürkle Ypsator multi-opening, three-stage laminator platform, DuPont Photovoltaic Encapsulants is claiming a breakthrough in productivity and a reduction in manufacturing costs for glass/glass thin-film solar module manufacturing.
A power outage on October 4 at REC’s polysilicon production facilities in Moses Lake, Washington, caused a complete shut down of operations. REC said there had been no safety issues, but it would be two to three weeks before full production could be resumed at pre-outage levels, resulting in a 500MT reduction to REC’s previously guided annual output at the facility of 19,000MT.
Although the financial costs remain unknown, an agreement has been reached over conservation issues arising from the 550MW Topaz Solar Farm project that First Solar is developing in San Luis Obispo County, California. A lawsuit against the project started by North County Watch and Carrizo Commons is expected to be dropped.
Citing the ongoing challenging market conditions, notably in its residential and commercial segments, SunPower will revise its revenue and earnings outlook for 2011. However, SunPower has a strong utility-scale project pipeline, especially within the US. The new 2011 guidance will be announced in a month, during its third quarter financial results, issued on November 3.
Having used Solyndra’s modules on a majority of its solar rooftop projects, EPC firm, Orion Energy Systems continues to champion the Chapter 11 firm’s technology and remains optimistic Solyndra could still emerge from the bankruptcy proceedings. Though its shares have fallen since Solyndra’s collapse, Orion Energy Systems claimed that it did not expect its business to be ‘adversely impacted.’
Trichlorosilane producer, SunSi Energies is attempting to join the NASDAQ Capital Market to fund further expansion of TCS production. The company recently noted that it expected revenue for 2012 to be between US$49-US$52 million, compared to US$15.1 million in revenue reported in fiscal 2011.
Billed as the largest airport project worldwide, Suntech modules have been used on an 8.05MW Athens International Airport PV project, which is designed to provide approximately 20% of the airport authority electricity needs and 9% of airport community needs. The project was built by Biosar using approximately 28,750 of Suntech’s STP 280-24/Vd modules.
Citing recently undertaken ‘channel checks,’ Jefferies equity analyst Jesse Pichel said in an investor note that both Tier 1 & 2 China-based module manufacturers were running at ~50% utilization rates due to overcapacity and weak demand, especially in light of the lack of financing for PV projects across Europe. With respect to Tier 3 producers, Jeffries said that some have effectively stopped production and shut down plants.
Continuing to build its project pipeline, First Solar has been awarded the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for a 130MW solar park to be built in Imperial County, California. Tenaska Solar Ventures, the solar energy affiliate of independent utility company Tenaska, will operate the park and has a 25-year power-purchase agreement (PPA) with San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), which was announced in March 2011.
According to news reports, US-based solar installation firm, SolarCity will not be able to complete and comply with documentation deadlines of September 30 to be considered for a US Department of Energy loan guarantee, previously announced.
