Atlas Material Testing Technology’s Solar/PV Center of Excellence in Phoenix, Arizona has added two further services to its portfolio. Services for solar simulator classification and I-V Curve tracing will aid solar companies to substantiate product warranty and efficiency claims.
Chinese semiconductor foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) has announced plans to spin off its solar cell and chip packaging and testing units. The Reuters report claimed that the company would list the spun-off divisions’ shares and set up new solar cell production lines in Shanghai.
Process technology company Despatch Industries has received multiple orders for its metallization firing furnaces from three new China-based customers. The furnaces in question have accounted for 8GW of production capacity worldwide, according to the company, and remain popular among Chinese solar manufacturing companies despite the economic downturn.
BP Solar has entered negotiations and proffered a proposal for the provision a solar power plant of almost 37MW on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York.
Taiwan-based EMS provider and automation equipment manufacturer Kenmec Mechanical Engineering looks set to roll out its first turnkey production line for amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film PV modules in May of this year, according to a report in Digitimes. The annual capacity of the line has yet to be reveealed.
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. has established a strategic partnership with San Francisco-based solar project developer 3rd Rock Systems and Technologies, Inc. that will see the companies collaborate on the development of 7.2MW of solar systems in the U.S. The exact location of the planned projects has yet to be disclosed.
Entech Solar’s research has led it to enter into a collaborative agreement with Fraunhofer USA’s Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE) to evaluate the possibility of incorporating high-efficiency back-contact silicon solar cells into Entech’s 20x concentrating solar systems.
Joining the Apollo Solar Energy Board are two new Independent Directors, Elliot M. Maza and James M. Lee, who between them bring a wealth of executive management experience to the company. Mr. Maza also assumes the role of chairman of the Company's Audit Committee.
Hoku Materials, Inc. has entered into a 10-year polysilicon supply agreement with Shanghai Alex New Energy Company, Ltd., a crystalline silicon solar cells, modules and PV products manufacturer, with deliveries beginning in early 2010. The polysilicon has been offered at set prices that will decline throughout the agreement’s 10-year lifespan.
The PV Group’s recent PV Fab Managers’ Forum in Dresden, Germany, was a successful event that saw attendance by over 200 leaders and technology experts in the PV industry. The overriding message was that the goal of grid parity would be greatly helped along by the implementation of standards – an ITRS of sorts for the PV industry.
