Tom Cheyney

Peter Schwartz has joined Solaicx as the vice president of productengineering for the solar silicon ingot and wafer manufacturer. Hecomes to Solaicx from Nanoconduction, where he served as VP of processand equipment. His more than a decade of production and engineeringexperience includes a stint as a director at Applied Materials, whichhe joined after the capital equipment giant purchased Torrex, where heled a manufacturing team.

Solar-cell manufacturer Suniva says that the U.S. National RenewableEnergy Laboratory (NREL) has verified 20+% conversion efficiencies onseveral screen-printed silicon cells developed by the company's R&Dteam in its lab.

The city ofSanta Barbara, CA, has selected EI Solutions andTiogaEnergy to design, build, and fund a 384-KW DC (331-KW AC) solarelectric system, which will be located on available rooftop space on acity corporation yard in the historic downtown area.

China Technology Development Group (CTDC) has begun commercialproduction of tin-oxide (SnO2) solar baseplates, a transparentconductive oxide substrate used as a top electrode foramorphous-silicon thin-film photovoltaic solar cells and modules. 

Canadian Solar (CSI) and GCL Silicon Technology have signed new long-term supply agreements, in which GCL will provide 510 metric tons of high-purity polysilicon feedstock over the next two years and approximately 1.8 GW of solar wafers to CSI from 2010-2015.

Suntech Power Holdings signed new supply agreements with GCL Silicon Technology, under which GCL will supply 9420 metric tons of polysilicon and 1.1 GW of silicon wafers to the Chinese photovoltaic solar cell and module manufacturer from 2008 to 2012.

SunEdison will finance, install, operate,and maintain a 1.2-MW solar PV system on the rooftop of General Motors' White Marsh, MD, powertrain assembly plant. When the8700-panel system goes online in the third quarter of 2009, it will beone of the largest rooftop solar installations on the US East Coast,occupying about 300,000 square feet.