A new venture-funded player has come out of stealth mode and entered the increasingly crowded photovoltaic system power optimization space. San Jose-based eIQ Energy says its just-launched Parallux product and Parallel Solar technology will lower the installed cost and improve the energy output of solar systems, while eliminating the design and installation constraints found in conventional string architectures.
Insurance broker and risk adviser Marsh and reinsurer Munich RE are collaborating in the launch of a new product guarantee insurance solution tailored for the solar panel manufacturing sector in Asia--said to be the first of its kind in the region. Taiwanese photovoltaic manufacturer NexPower (a client of Marsh Taiwan) is the first company to purchase the package.
LDK Solar continues to expand its systems and project business with the announcement of an agreement with Suqian City of Jiangsu Province to develop up to 300MW of various solar photovoltaic power projects by 2015. The terms of the deal include financing, design, and specific location of each projects and require a feasibility study as well as final approval from relevant governmental agencies before beginning a project, the company said.
Sunovia Energy Technologies and EPIR Technologies have completed the design and construction of a closed-space-sublimation (CSS) system for fabrication of polycrystalline cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cell devices. The partners are developing an ultra-high-efficiency, low-cost CdTe-on-silicon PV device based on single-crystal CdTe instead of the polycrystalline material commonly used in CdTe panels.
Astronergy has won the bid to design and build a 2MW rooftop photovoltaic power plant located in Hangzhou Energy and Environment Industrial Park. The project, which will feature a mix of crystalline-silicon and thin-film modules, is Zhejiang province's first large-scale on-grid PV system. The installation will be fully financed by the government-run China Energy Conservation Investment Corp., as part of the Golden Sun initiative to finance at least 500MW in various PV installations over the next few years.
Sustainable Energy Technologies has appointed Robert Bucher as its president/CEO, effective Sept. 1. The company says that the former CEO of Adept Technology and Norsat International will guide the launch of its Paralex rooftop solar power system architecture in Europe and North America from its offices in Toronto.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has validated a new world record for terrestrial concentrator solar cell efficiency using Spectrolab's latest multijunction photovoltaic devices. The cells from the Boeing subsidiary hit efficiencies of 41.6% during June tests at the Department of Energy lab in Golden, CO, topping the previous record of 41.1% held by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany.
First Solar's executive ranks have thinned with the departure of John Carrington, the company's EVP of global marketing and business development. In a Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm announced that effective Aug. 24, Carrington and the company had "mutually agreed" to end his employment. He joined the company in May 2008.
Suniva has achieved record conversion efficiencies on its monocrystalline-silicon solar cells and started production on its second manufacturing line. The Norcross, GA-based company said that its ARTisun cells are achieving efficiencies of better than 18%, which the firms claims is a record for screen-printed cells in full-scale production. Its newly commissioned manufacturing line will add 64MWp of cell-making capacity to the existing 32MWp line opened in October 2008, pushing the firm's total production capability threefold to nearly 100MW.
Sunovia Energy Technologies and EPIR Technologies have expanded their R&D and pilot production facilities in Bolingbrook, IL. The partners said that the facility expansion allows them to begin optimization of their high-efficiency, low-cost cadmium telluride on silicon (CdTe/Si) concentrated photovoltaic devices. Once optimized, pilot-scale production will begin at the same facility.
