Features

Product Briefing Outline: First Solar’s FS Series 2 PV Modules are designed for use in grid-connected, commercial power plants and are sold to leading system integrators, independent power project developers and utility companies worldwide. The modules are CdTe thin film in construction that will generally produce more electricity under real-world conditions than conventional solar modules with similar power ratings and the lowest cost per watt overall.

Thursday, January 15, saw the launch of the Australia Solar Institute. Australian scientists have often been at the forefront of renewable energy research, particularly solar. Unfortunately the domestic industry has been denied the opportunity to benefit from the world-class success of the research conducted in Australia, largely because of a lack of funding. Have things changed?

Product Briefing Outline: The Electrical Insulation Tester from Dr Schenk is a measurement solution for thin-film solar modules. It performs an electrical insulation test between the solar cells after scribing, and detects shorts and minimum resistance between neighboring cells.

Product Briefing Outline: Testbourne Limited is now offering an extensive range of cast, plasma sprayed and extruded rotating cylindrical metal and ceramic sputtering targets. Rotatable targets are proving to be increasingly popular in the PV industry due to various advantages over planar sputtering targets. The most commonly used C-MAG rotary targets are available in Chromium, Silver, Aluminium-Silicon, Tin, Titanium Oxide, Stainless steel, Aluminium, Tungsten, Tantalum, Molybdenum, Niobium, Copper and Zinc alloys.

Product Briefing Outline: Pasan SA has introduced a new electronic load that is more accurate and offers several additional features for the testing of solar cells and modules. This electronic load not only is fitted to module and cell flashers, but also can be combined with continuous light sources. Furthermore the equipment is suitable for outdoor testing.

Product Briefing Outline: Bekaert Advanced Coatings, a total solution provider for rotatable sputter technology, has developed a series of flexible and high performing sputter hardware components for rotating cylindrical magnetron applications.  With these key components a customized and complete sputter solution can be worked out in close collaboration with the customer.  Whether it concerns an existing coater in an upgrade/rebuild project or a new coater in a green field project, maximum flexibility can be offered for building in all critical components needed for sustaining a controlled process to realize high end products.

In our first full year online, we have steadily increased the number of new products we have reviewed and also seen the new products section gain increasingly greater traffic levels throughout the year. Looking through the traffic numbers, we have identified the Top 5 most popular reviews of new products for your enjoyment.

Product Briefing Outline: Newport Corporation has introduced the latest addition to its industry-leading portfolio of Photovoltaic development solutions – the PV ‘IsoStation’ Series Workstations.  Newport’s PV IsoStation Workstation is a, 36”x 60” ergonomic workstation specifically designed for PV test and development applications.  It features integrated storage and shelving for instruments, solar simulators and other devices and a specially treated worksurface that reduces light reflectivity by a factor of six compared to typical optical table surfaces.  The PV IsoStation workstation is ideal for a wide range of photovoltaic applications.

Product Briefing Outline: Silicon Genesis has successfully produced solar substrates for the PV industry using its ‘kerf-free’ wafering process technology called ‘PolyMax’. The company has started production of the first ever kerf-free 150um solar-cell substrates at its new solar development and pilot production facility. In addition to saving poly, the wafers are claimed to be significantly more resistant to breakage than conventional wafers using its proprietary equipment.