A new joint venture triple junction thin-film solar company is being formed between Sharp, Enel Green Power, and STMicroelectronics. The equal partners are set to invest €320 million to establish an initial production capacity of 160MW at an existing but shuttered former 300mm semiconductor fab owned by STMicroelectronics in Catania, Italy. Thin-film module production is expected to start at the beginning of 2011 and ramped over several years to a targeted 480MW annual capacity.
As promised at its recent analyst conference, First Solar and EDF Energies Nouvelles have finally released details regarding their cofinanced CdTe thin film plant. The planned 100MW facility, which will have two operating manufacturing lines, could be established in Blanquefort, near the city of Bordeaux, should final negotiations with the local government prove successful.
A recent pick-up in equipment orders in the fourth quarter of 2009 will enable Roth & Rau to meet its previously projected sales guidance of around €200 million. New orders received in the quarter to date amount to €100.1 million, which includes an order for several c-Si turnkey production lines to ‘well-known Indian manufacturer.’ The major order is initially worth €68 million and includes the option of being expanded to around €80 million within the next two years.
Already having announced solar projects of over 70MW using c-Si PV modules from LDK Solar across Europe, the integrated PV manufacturer has signed its biggest single European deal to date with Global Power Resources for the construction of 100MW of PV plants in 2010. LDK Solar has already announced a project pipeline in China of over 2GW, being rolled out over several years. LDK Solar will be providing engineering, procurement, construction services and supply the solar modules, while GPR will acquire the final ownership of the PV plants.
In a significant move by EDF Energies Nouvelles to boost its solar energy portfolio, the renewable energy producer has secured new project finance that is underpinned by a €500 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB). EIB is financing 50% of planned projects in both France and Italy through 2012, while commercial banks will support each project with the other 50% of project finance required. EDF is exclusively using First Solar’s CdTe thin film modules for the €1 billion of projects over the next 2-years.
Product Briefing Outline: SolarEdge Technologies distributed DC power harvesting systems maximizes power generation of residential and large-scale PV sites by up to 25 percent, while reducing costs and complexities for panel manufactures, systems integrators, installers and owners.
In a significant turnaround compared to the first half of 2009, solar module manufacturer Solon said that it was seeing strong demand from the German market, resulting in its production plants in Germany now running at full capacity. Solon’s factory in Berlin has a capacity of 60MW, while the second plant in Greifswald has a capacity of 200MW. Without giving exact guidance, Solon said that revenue in the months of October and November has already surpassed the third quarter of 2009. Solon posted net revenue of €218.4 million in 3Q09.
Since announcing the project in September, SunPower has finished the first phase of Italy’s largest solar power plant in Montalto di Castro. Construction of the €120 million, 24MW plant was completed in eight months and was connected to the grid on November 30, several weeks ahead of schedule. The Montalto di Castro plant uses 78,720 SunPower solar panels as well as its tracker systems. The project is being built for SunRay Renewable Energy
Possibly the largest ever dichlorosilane (DCS) redistribution process (RDR) project has been successfully completed by Dynamic Engineering (DEI) for GCL Solar’s polysilicon plant. The RDR project for GCL was designed to process 10,000 mta of DCS, which eliminates the byproduct through conversion of DCS to trichlorosilane (TCS). GCL Solar is planning to expand polysilicon production to 18,000 MTA by end of 2009 and 21,000 MTA by end of 2010.
The new German Government didn’t spend much time after the recent election to propose changes in the FiT program above and beyond the planned yearly declines. Then under pressure from the PV industry and certain states, politicians became more conciliatory to less than ‘aggressive’ changes, even though it was never made clear what the degree of changes would inevitably be. However, with the increasing belief of a growing number of industry observers and players, PV installations in the country are set for record levels, far beyond what the new Government would accept under ‘reasonable’ growth.
