Recent rumours of a business tie-up between Q-Cells and LDK Solar have come to fruition with the official formation of a Joint Venture (JV) to promote and supply PV systems for large-scale solar power plants in both Europe and China. The new business partners said that a 40MW project located in Europe had already been secured, which will see the use of solar wafers from LDK Solar and solar cells from Q-Cells, though no details were given in respect to modules.
Applied Materials has claimed that the European Patent Office (EPO) has revoked a Patent No. EP 0 871 979, which is at the centre of a patent infringement case Oerlikon filed in June, 2008 in the German District Court of Duesseldorf, against SunFilm AG, a customer of Applied Materials ‘SunFab’ thin film technology and production line equipment.
One of the largest diversified equipment and service providers to the photovoltaics industry, centrotherm photovoltaics AG, posted an increase in revenue for 2008 of over 125% to reach €374.7 million compared to €166.2 million in 2007. Order backlog stands at €990.2 million at the end of 2008, of which the company expects to convert 60% into revenue this year. Total revenue guidance was set between €500 million and €550 million for 2009, potential growth of over 40% year-on-year.
Thin film and c-Si PV equipment supplier Roth & Rau AG has reported sales of €272 million for 2008, an increase of 86.1% over sales of €142 million in 2007. Growth was attributed to both product and service expansion due in part to key acquisitions undertaken that included AIS Automation and TECNOFIMES. The company now claims that its own products cover about 65% of the process steps in the value chain, compared to 45% previously.
Record sales and market share gains marked SMA Solar Technology AG’s financial results for 2008. Sales more than doubled to €682 million, representing a slight increase on preliminary results reported in February, 2009.
A long-term gas supply deal has been signed between Masdar PV and Linde Group, which also includes gas storage, distribution systems and on-site gas management services. Supplied gases include nitrogen (N2), hydrogen (H2), silane (SiH4) and chamber cleaning gases, as well as argon (Ar) and helium (He). Masdar PV is currently investing US$200 million in a thin-film plant in Erfurt, Germany.
According to IMS Research, a contraction in PV module shipments is anticipated for 2009 due to the significant void left by Spain, due to its new 500MW cap on installations. Without the cap and favourable FIT (feed-in-tariffs) in 2008, Spain became the largest market for PV for the first time, surpassing Germany for the highest MW of installations. IMS Research expects a shortfall of some 1.5-2GW in 2009, which will not be absorbed by growth in other regions such as Italy and France.
The rapidly changing supply and price dynamics of polysilicon has led to PV module manufacturer Sunways AG making a string of changes to previously announced polysilicon and UMG-silicon production partnerships. In early February 2009, Sunways cancelled a wafer supply deal with Swiss Wafers that had only been signed in October 2008. This cancellation is a result of what appears to be better prices on offer from LDK Solar.
Copper-indium-gallium-di-selenide (CIGS) thin-film start-up, DayStar Technologies has said that its auditor Hein & Associates LLP of Irvine, California included an audit opinion in its latest SEC financial filings that contained a going concern notice. The company had posted losses of approximately US$26 million in 2008 and acknowledged that it needed to raise further capital to continue development of its CIGS technology and bring the product to market.
Evergreen Solar has entered into an agreement with RMT, Inc., a renewable energy projects firm, to boost sales of its String Ribbon modules into the utility-scale solar plant market, which is expected to grow rapidly under new renewable energy strategies, recently adopted as part of the U.S economic stimulus pacts. The new agreement will see RMT handle all engineering, procurement and construction functions while Evergreen Solar will provide the solar panels.
