Applied Materials reported much improved overall financial results for its second quarter ended May 2, but a weak showing by the company’s energy and environmental solutions group detracted from an otherwise solid performance. Led by strong silicon systems and display group revenues, the company reported overall net sales of $2.3 billion and net income of $264 million, with new orders of $1.26 billion—all well above the previous quarter’s numbers. Despite record new bookings for crystalline-silicon PV equipment, the company's EES group took heavy losses, and the company will finalize plans for restructuring of its SunFab thin-film PV unit next month.
ProLogis’ renewable energy group has opened what it calls the first dedicated comparative test site for solar modules operated by a real estate development company. The 11KW (DC) rooftop system, located in Denver, CO, includes 99 photovoltaic panels from eight different manufacturers and features a range of thin-film and crystalline-silicon module types.
Yingli Green Energy has signed a sales contract with Maetel, a unit of infrastructure company ACS Group. Under the terms of the deal, the Chinese solar manufacturer will supply 33MW of its Yingli Solar crystalline-silicon PV modules to the Spanish engineering, procurement, and construction firm, with deliveries starting in October and continuing through the end of April 2011. The panels will be deployed at what will be the largest solar power system in France.
SunPower has come out with its first-quarter 2010 results, reporting revenues of $347 million for the period, which compares to $212 million and $548 million in Q1 and Q4 2009, respectively. The company's components segment accounted for 81% of the latest quarterly revenues, while the systems group pulled in 19% of the total. The firm's FY2010 guidance calls for revenues between $2 billion and $2.25 billion.
Thin-film PV firm Global Solar Energy said that modules using its cells are powering what it calls the largest CIGS rooftop installation in the world, a 820KW system at a plastics manufacturer in Orgiano, Italy. Spanish solar company Yohkon Energia produced the modules, and Espacasa unit CDM Italy installed the copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide-based solar energy system.
Thin-film photovoltaics firm Xunlight has received certification for its flexible, lightweight modules under the ANSI/UL 1703 standard for North American markets. The company says the certification applies to its XR-series of flexible photovoltaic rooftop modules for a range of power outputs up to 264W per panel, making Xunlight one of a handful of companies that have had their flexible PV panels certified.
Dow Corning and PV equipment supplier Reis Robotics have formed an alliance to promote the materials company's PV-6100 silicone-based encapsulants for solar module production applications. The new encapsulants, when used in conjunction with the manufacturing process, are said to outperform the industry standard EVA resins as a way to protect the solar cells in a PV panel.
The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory has confirmed that flexible CIGS solar panels manufactured on SoloPower’s pilot production line have achieved aperture conversion efficiencies of 11% during tests at the lab's Golden, CO, facility--the highest efficiencies yet achieved by a full-size flex module. NREL had previously verified 13.4% efficiencies on the company’s 11.8cm2 lab cells.
Photovoltaic integrator Phoenix Solar and CIGS solar module manfacturer MiaSolé have signed a framework agreement that will run through 2013. The deal calls for MiaSolé to fulfill a Phoenix Solar order for an initial 4.5MW of copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide thin-film PV panels in the second quarter, with the remaining shipment amounts to be determined. The framework agreement also includes a recycling warranty where required by regulation or financing; at the end of the module’s lifetime, the customer can choose to have them taken away by MiaSolé and recycled, or reconditioned.
Innovalight has set a new record of 19% conversion efficiency for solar cells processed with the company's silicon ink. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems measured the results on industry-standard size cells made by the materials and technology company at ISE's independent testing center in Germany.
