Updated: In what looks like a strategy to better compete with low-cost Asia-based solar module manufacturers after losing significant market share in some of its core markets, SunPower has secretly sourced from third-party suppliers a SunPower-branded multicrystalline module ‘Serengeti’ to be used in commercial applications. The scoop was revealed by financial analyst Mark Bachman of investment firm Auriga USA. According to Bachman, who discovered the product on SunPower’s website in an unlinked location, believes SunPower’s competitive argument that the company’s high-efficiency monocrystalline modules can compete effectively with lower-priced Asian modules is now in question. SunPower has not officially launched the product.
According to updated figures from GSE, PV installations in Italy for 2009 have risen to 720.3MW, up from revised figures released in January, 2010 of 374MW. Installations connected to the grid in 2008 were 338MW. Recently, Barclays Capital had forecasted that PV installations in Italy could reach 2GW in 2010 as grid parity had been reached.
Following on from a series of solar project developer acquisitions, First Solar is acquiring NextLight Renewable Power for approximately US$285 million. NextLight has a project pipeline worth 1.1GW, with sites located in the southwestern United States that range in size from 30MW to 290MW. With its project development acquisitions, First Solar has rapidly become a major player in the U.S. utility renewable power market.
Product Briefing Outline: Schiller Automation’s TS 3600 high-performance tester & sorter is claimed to set a new benchmarks for cell throughput, yield and reliability. With 3,600 cells per hour with an assured good part yield of 97.3% and a guaranteed operational availability of 95% make the TS 3600 a leading high-performance and reliable cell tester and sorter of its type.
Product Briefing Outline: Solon has developed the ‘SOLON Black 220/16’ mono-crystalline module including a service package for large-scale projects, thus providing a module that is a safe and highly profitable investment. This move is in keeping with Solon’s commitment to meet the special conditions of the project business.
In its "Cool Vendors in Solar Energy, 2010" report, Gartner highlights some of the solar energy start-ups to keep an eye on that it believes are developing technologies and innovations that will likely have a strong impact on the adoption of solar energy. Companies included in the review include, Applied Quantum Technology, BrightView Systems, Confluence Solar, Innovalight and Solexant.
Pan Ökoteam is using PV modules from Kyocera at one of the largest single projects to date in the Czech Republic. At the end of 2009, the plant had reached 1.6MW and is expected to expand to 4MW in 2011. With an installed capacity of 4MW in 2011 annual electricity output of 4.2 million kilowatt hours is expected and could supply about 1050 households with 2,800 tonnes of CO2 saved per year.
The latest slew of announcements from various sectors of the solar manufacturing supply chain to establish partial or complete production outsourcing is no accident and a trend that will continue grow, according to iSuppli. The market research firm noted that the latest SunPower news of a contract manufacturing deal with major electronics manufacturing services firm Flextronics is only representative of the early stages of a boom, especially in module assembly outsourcing.
Electronics manufacturing services company Flextronics will utilize production floor space in its Silicon Valley operations for a 75MW module assembly facility for SunPower. The Silicon Valley-based PV manufacturer is carrying out a solar cell capacity expansion program at its own facilities in Asia. The new subcontract production should be operational by the end of the year and will service module installations throughout the Western U.S. from its Milpitas facility. Approximately 100 jobs will be created at the facility.
The German solar industry’s research and development efforts into advanced solar cell technology will be given a boost of €100 million, after Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved plans, according to Reuters. The move was made, according to the report, to weaken resistance by members of the lower house of parliament (Bundesrat), particularly from eastern states such as Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, to a proposed 16% extra solar feed-in tariff cut. There are a a significant number of PV manufacturers located in these regions, and many have openly opposed the FIT cut suggested by Merkel’s government.
