Any manufacturer involved in the renewable energy business should be taking note of the move by SunPower to report its carbon footprint from operations. As part of the Carbon Disclosure Project, an independent not-for-profit organization, SunPower said that in 2009, its global operations produced greenhouse gas emissions of 328 metric tons of CO2 equivalent per megawatt of solar cells produced. Due to higher cell efficiencies this was approximately 10% down on the previous year.
A key aim for First Solar in 2010 has been to focus on broadening its customer base in Europe to mitigate potential fluctuations in core markets such as Germany. In 2009, 71% of sales were to Germany but have been declining to around 50% by the second quarter of this year as both utility-scale projects went ahead in the U.S. and important emerging markets in Europe, such as France and Italy continued to grow. Expanded contracts with seven key customers in Europe have led to a 380MW increase in module supply agreements for 2011.
Product Briefing Outline: Control Techniques has launched a ‘transformerless’ central inverter system for utility scale photovoltaic power plants that is designed to maximize investor returns through optimized availability, efficiency and yield. Control Techniques’ SPV is constructed using 145kWp, 176kWp and multiple 176kWp parallel connected inverter modules to produce any desired power rating up to 1760kWp and employs a second generation Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm. Over the last 2 years Control Techniques inverters have been installed in over 80 large scale PV power plants with a combined power of 150MW. Confirmed orders for over 330MW have been received.
Once a leading in-house solar module manufacturer, BP Solar has further solidified its outsourced manufacturing strategy by awarding JA Solar a monocrystalline and multicrystalline cell supply contract exceeding 185MW. The new supply deal will see 100MW of cells shipped to BP beginning in the first quarter of 2011.
(Updated) Integrating energy harvesting technologies into crystalline solar modules is fast becoming the latest trend, which promises lower BOS costs compared to bolt-on applications. With the number of companies entering this market mushrooming in 2010, Suntech has decided to collaborate with at least four such firms, Tigo Energy, National Semiconductor, Azuray Technologies, and Enphase Energy.
The latest figures for the German Bundesnetzagentur show that registered installations in Germany in the first eight months of 2010 reached 4.8GW, a massive 327% higher than the same period in 2009. According to IMS Research, Germany accounted for 48% of global demand in the first three quarters of 2010 – up from 40% for the same period in 2009.
With only two major glass manufacturers (Asahi and NSG Group) able to offer transparent conductive oxide (TCO) glass, used for thin-film PV modules, a new partnership between equipment suppliers, Beneq Oy and Glaston, is set to open the market to independent glass producers with complete TCO coating lines.
Product Briefing Outline: Umicore Precious Metals Refining has introduced a CIGS production scrap recycling service with an initial capacity of 50Mt per annum. This new service allows the recycling of production waste (e.g. chamber residues) generated by CIGS solar cell producers, and valorizes copper, indium, gallium and selenium.
A DEK employee for over 15 years, Ed Rabbitt has been appointed by DEK Solar as its new Solutions Engineer. Rabbitt will be responsible for print process solutions for advanced applications, in addition to supporting new solar installations directly with customers. DEK Solar has recently expanded its equipment manufacturing operations at its Weymouth, UK facility and the launched a new screen printer, dubbed Eclipse to meet growing demand.
Possible changes to the recently introduced feed-in tariff (FiT) in the UK are being mooted, according to media reports. The Solar Power Portal, sister-site to PV-Tech and dedicated to the UK PV market, has heard rumors about the possibility that cuts may be made to the tariff prior to the 2012 official review and has produced this update. A Financial Times article published on Friday 24th September alludes to the fact that at this weeks Liberal Democrat conference apparent back room talks have taken place.
