Product Briefing Outline: Groupo Clavijo has developed an advanced double-axis solar tracker specifically for the U.S. market using a patented hydraulic brake system in the azimuth movement. Miller Welding will manufacture and commercialize it in the United States, under a partnership agreement with Clavijo.
Having experienced a significant decline in equipment sales this year, Manz Automation is expecting a new wave of capital equipment spending as PV manufacturers will need to boost cell conversion efficiencies to remain competitive. Although the company expects to be profitable in the fourth quarter due to a pick-up in sales and an order backlog of €78 million. Manz expects a loss for the year due to weak market conditions for the majority of the year. The company guided full year revenue of between €80 and €85 million.
According to German news stories and confirmed by Q-Cells to PV-Tech, the PV project arm of the company is planning to construct the world's largest solar plant at a former military airfield in Brandenburg-Briest at an estimated cost of €400 million. The project could use approximately 730,000 solar modules and occupy a 400-acre area. A decision by the Brandenburg-Briest city council is expected this month.
Sales in GT Solar’s second quarter FY2010 declined to US$104.2 million, compared to sales in the first quarter of US$140.2, highlighting the lumpiness in revenue generation of its furnace business as its order backlog stood at US$1.03 billion, down from US$1.115 billion in the previous quarter. New orders received in the quarter were US$20.1 million. De-booking was US$10.6million. Deferred revenue on equipment already shipped stood at US$472 million. Total new booking for the year stood at US$66.5 million.
Touted as the largest urban solar power plant in the U.S. a 10MW facility on the south-side of Chicago, the new plant will use Satcon’s 1MW Prism inverters. The site, owned and operated by Exelon Generation, was designed and is being constructed by SunPower Corp, using approximately 32,300 of its solar modules as well as SunPower’s trackers.
Product Briefing Outline: SOMONT, a subsidiary of 3S Industries AG, has had success with the RAPID stringer and lay-up systems for high throughput cell stringing in module production with capacity ranges of 10-40MW per year. However, a new stringing system, CERTUS, has been developed for production capacities from 50-100MW per year.
Product Briefing Outline: Renusol GmbH has introduced three new mounting systems-ConSole DS, VarioSole DS and InterSole XL-for thin film solar modules using a new injection-compression technology. They are designed for thin-film modules and solar plants for industrial roofs. The thin-film laminates are anchored in linear fashion with this system, while integral anti-slip protection makes installation faster and simpler. Europe-wide patents have already been filed for all new systems.
Despite many PV manufacturers holding back on further capacity expansions in the first-half of 2009, major producer, SolarWorld had retained its capacity investments, which were pegged to approximately 20% of sales throughout the year. However, due to increased sales, shipments have increased 22% in first nine months of 2009. This has sparked further capacity expansion plans at its facilities in the U.S. and South Korea.
A seasonal end of year rush to beat the changes set to take place on tariffs in Germany is on, which is potentially being fuelled further by the continued speculation over further cuts in the FiT, due to the new German Government. Germany was expected to be the largest market in 2009 for new PV installations, after the collapse of the Spanish market last year. However, a prolonged winter and the continued fall-out from the financial crisis meant that installations in Germany may not have met earlier forecasts.
In a short press release that gave no clue as to the reason for the executive changes at Oerlikon Solar, Jeannine Sargent has left the company with immediate effect, replaced by Dr. Jürg Henz, Senior Manager of the Oerlikon Group and head of the business unit Oerlikon Solar Thin Film. Dr. Henz now becomes interim CEO.
