Syanne Olson

CVD Equipment Corporation stated that it has received a total of $25 million in orders since January 1, 2008, compared to $14 million orders received in the full 12 months in 2007. Around 50% of the orders in 2008 deal with the needs of the solar and energy markets and include CVD proprietary and patent pending thin-film solutions.

The Organic Photovoltaics 2009 event, organized by IntertechPira, will take place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from April 27 through 29, 2009. The event is being co-chaired by Russell Gaudiana of Konarka Technologies, Inc., and Dr. Dana Olson of the NREL. This year’s venue will provide an exceptional arena for industry experts, researchers, customers and investors to address the opportunities and most critical challenges for the commercialization of OPV technologies.

Tempress Systems, Inc., the subsidiary company of Amtech Systems, Inc., has received a $3 million order from a new European-based customer that supplies solar turnkey systems. The new order comes after two existing customers in Asia placed follow up orders in September 2008 for Tempress Systems diffusion tools and a separate follow-on solar order for its diffusion processing system in August from another existing customer in Asia.

SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. broke ground this week on its new Renewable Energy and Technology Park factory in Salem, Oregon. The factory is scheduled to begin operating in October 2009 with the fabrication of solar ingots and wafers used in the production of solar photovoltaic cells.

In conjunction with the start of Solar Power International 2008, and in the shadow of the economic downturn, the Solar Electric Power Association appealed to the U.S. electrics utility and solar industries to come together and work towards meeting an aggressive solar electric capacity growth forecast.