LDK Solar has responded to Q-Cells' announcement of its unilateral termination of the solar wafer supply agreement concluded with LDK in December 2007. Q-Cells has claimed that LDK has not fulfilled significant contractual obligations under the supply agreement, and now the Chinese company has come out with a rebuttal statement, calling the Q-Cells' moves a "wrongful termination" of the agreement.
The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory has validated conversion efficiencies of 14.1% for flexible copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide (CIGS) solar-cell materials produced on Ascent Solar’s 1.5MW commercial pilot line in Littleton, CO. The company’s internal testing shows active-area peak efficiencies for its full-size monolithically integrated CIGS-on-polyimide modules reaching 11.7%, with median efficiencies on the line averaging between 10.5 and 11%-plus, according to president/CEO Farhad Moghadam.
In another example of the rust-tech industrial base converting to cleantech manufacturing, Skyline Solar has partnered with the Cosma International unit of global automotive supplier Magna International to start pilot commercial production of the reflective racking, mounting, and other structural components of Skyline's high gain solar (HGS) system. The initial manufacturing is taking place at a Cosma metal-stamping facility previously used for auto parts production in Troy, MI, on the same campus as the Magna unit's engineering center, where the two companies’ teams have worked together on product design and materials optimization.
Roth & Rau has opened a technology center for the development of future-generation solar cells at the Swiss Institute for Microtechnology (EPFL/IMT), as part of a three-year agreement that the two organizations signed in May 2008. A Swiss subsidiary of Roth & Rau has been established in conjunction with the installation of the research line and siting of a team of scientists and engineers at IMT's Neuchâtel campus.
Photovoltaic systems integrator Phoenix Solar has signed a signed a project development deal with a Bulgarian subsidiary of the Krass Capital Group to build a solar power plant in the southern European nation. The agreement calls for the development of a solar park with a peak output of around 20MW.
Israeli start-up BrightView Systems says it has successfully integrated and validated its wide area metrology (WAM) system for thin-film photovoltaics producers at Signet Solar's amorphous-silicon TFPV manufacturing line in Mochau, Germany. The tool has allowed Signet to implement automated, continuous full-panel process monitoring and feedback on all production modules.
G24 Innovations has sent what it calls the first commercial shipment of flexible dye-sensitized solar-cell modules to Mascotte Industrial Associates, a Hong Kong-based consumer electronics bag manufacturer. The G24i DSSC units, which are produced on the company's roll-to-roll production line in Wales, will be integrated into a range of products, including backpacks and camera bags.
OTB Solar and Arise Technologies say they have made “significant progress” in the development and deployment of OTB's inkjet deposition-based single-pass selective emitter process, in combination with a conventional diffusion furnace, to produce high-efficiency silicon-based photovoltaic cells. The process enables the deposition of the area emitter and selective emitter dopants in a single-pass sequence, thus reducing and eliminating the need for additional costly emitter forming equipment, processes, and materials.
Sixtron Advanced Materials has named industrial gas industry exec Steven Lerner as a strategic adviser and member of its board. The company says that Lerner, who was CTO of Praxair and serves on a number of advisory boards, will provide crucial insight and counsel as it deploys silane-free antireflective coating systems to crystalline-silicon PV cell companies.
Americans overwhelmingly believe that the nation should develop and use solar energy and that the federal government should make solar power a national priority, according to a new poll. The Schott Solar Barometer survey finds almost half of all Americans are thinking about solar power as an option for their homes or businesses and cite solar as their top choice among energy sources.
