Amtech Systems’ subsidiary, Tempress Systems, started the New Year off on a positive note, receiving US$32 million in new diffusion processing systems in January alone. The company notes that the orders were made by both new and existing Asia-based companies.
Siemens Industry has signed a supply and distribution agreement with Enphase Energy for the sale of Enphase’s solar microinverters systems through Siemens electrical equipment distributers network. The agreement will see Enphase furnish Siemens with its solar microinverters and Enlighten, a web-based monitoring service.
BioSolar has advised that the production samples of its BioBacksheet technology have finished most of the Underwriter’s Laboratories (UL) material property tests and is on its way to receiving full UL certification. Tests on the product have included: material identification, partial discharge test and resistance to catching fire among other UL led testing. The last test, a measurement of relative thermal index (RTI) will soon be conducted.
Unirac and Canadian Solar Solutions have come together to offer its residential and commercial customers 30MW of Canadian Solar’s PV systems coupled with Unirac’s mounting solutions for rooftop installations in Canada. Canadian Solar will provide the engineering, procurement and construction services for the projects, while Unirac will supply its racking technology. Both companies look to their partnership as a way for their customers to further take advantage of Ontario’s FIT program.
Recurrent Energy entered into an 180MW supply agreement with Celestica for the delivery of its crystalline-silicon PV modules to 19 of Recurrent’s Ontario-based solar power projects. The solar projects are part of the Ontario FIT program and will have the Celestica-manufactured solar panels delivered under a multiyear agreement. No financial details were revealed, although full production is expected by this summer.
Scheuten Solar has signed 10MW of new contracts for its turnkey projects in Belgium. The contracts relate to mostly large-scale PV systems on industrial rooftops and include the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) along with operation and maintenance on the systems.
GE Capital, NRG Energy and ConocoPhillips have jointly committed US$300 million in capital for a new joint venture: Energy Technology Ventures. The JV will fund around 30 venture-and growth-stage companies over the next four years, including the next generation photovoltaics developer Alta Devices. Although details about financial details of the JV and the initial investments have not been disclosed, the JV will focus early investments in companies developing “game-changing” technologies.
Two of IKEA’s German stores have recently been fitted with solar installations and connected to the grid thanks to the partnership between the home furnishing company and REC Solar. IKEA selected REC Solar out of 200 solar installation providers, who then provided the modules and installed the solar systems on IKEA’s store roofs.
Siemens Energy and Suntech Power Holdings have entered into a framework agreement wherein Suntech will provide solar PV modules for various European solar installations. Siemens notes that over the past seven months, the company has received orders for PV plants that have a combined capacity of over 80MW in six countries.
After examining its results for the past fiscal year, Schott Solar has decided to augment its global PV module production capacity to reach 800MW during 2011. To help facilitate its wafer capacity expansion, Schott has formed a joint venture with China-based Hareon Solar Technology. The first phase of the JV will add 300MW of Schott’s module manufacturing capacity to its existing 500MW capacity in place at its New Mexico and Czech Republic facilities.
