Specialist Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) semiconductor wafer producer, Soitec is to acquire a major holding in concentrated photovoltaic (CPV), Fraunhofer ISE spin-off, Concentrix Solar. Fraunhofer ISE has retained a 20% stake in the start-up, valuing 100% of Concentrix at €55 million. Soitec also announced that would enter into strategic technology alliance with both the Fraunhofer ISE and the CEA-Leti.
With an intended initial investment of approximately US$95.6 million (HK$ 741 million) to establish a 100MW a-Si thin film production plant, a joint venture is being formed between China Gogreen Energy and Administration Committee of Zhengzhou High and New Technology Industries Development Zone, which is owned by Zhengzhou Municipal People’s Government, Henan Province, China.
Product Briefing Outline: Semilab SSM, a division of Semilab, has launched its newest member to the ‘NanoSRP’ family of metrology products. Designed for small and mid-tier sized semiconductor and solar cell manufacturers, the SRP Express 170 is a manual system that provides density and resistivity depth profiling using spreading resistance profiling technology (SRP).
Following on from its last major order for ‘SunCarrier’ solar tracking systems in September 2009, when a+f announced an eight solar park deal worth €36 million for the Foggia and Apulia regions of Italy, the company has signed a new deal worth over €43 million for a further eight parks.
The dispute over a solar wafer supply agreement between Q-Cells and LDK Solar has been settled out of court with both companies continuing their business partnerships and agreeing to a new tolling arrangement for solar cells and modules. According to Q-Cells both parties have resolved their differences over the interpretation of the disputed wafer supply contract and have ended all legal actions, including Q-Cells attempt to collect on a US$244.5 million bank guarantee.
Although site selection and other details such as costs and actual size of the plant have yet to be decided, Canadian Solar has announced plans to build a ~200MW module factory in Ontario, Canada, which could see ‘Phase 1’ in operational status by the end of 2010. The integrated PV manufacturer noted that Ontario’s attractive FiT (feed-in tariff) had shown considerable customer interest for ‘Made in Ontario’ solar systems. However, the FiT also stipulates that on larger PV installations 50% of the goods and labour need to have been sourced locally. This requirement will rise to 60% in 2011.
Product Briefing Outline: Honeywell Electronic Materials has launched a new material called Honeywell SOLARC that improves the efficiency and power output of PV module. The new product is a transparent coating material that improves the light transmittance through the glass that covers the solar cells.
Product Briefing Outline: BASF and Schmid have together developed a new, contact-free laser transfer printing (LTP) process for metallizing the front and back of solar cells. At present, it is mainly the screen printing process that is used for metallization. The printer and paste system now developed by BASF and Schmid is based on a contact-free laser process and not only offers customers advantages with regard to handling, but also increases the efficiency of cell production.
Citing an attractive 8% return on the investment, Solar Millennium is for the first time offering potential investors the opportunity to benefit from the returns on its 50MW Andasol 3 parabolic trough power plant, currently under construction, via a closed-end fund. The fund is aimed at investors domiciled in Germany, who can participate starting from a minimum amount of €5,000.
Having recently had their organic solar cells verified by Fraunhofer ISE with a power conversion efficiency of 6.07% for a tandem solar cell (active area of 2cm²), Dresden-based Heliatek has received a new round of funding to the tune of US$27 million to build its first production facility in Dresden. The start up had previously noted that it planned to increase the conversation efficiencies to 10%. Heliatek is targeting in particular mobile market and architectural (BIPV) applications.
