On March 3rd, 2011 a group of 22 Czech Senators filed a complaint with the Supreme Court against a new Czech PV law, which introduces a 26% tax on solar energy production. The Senators are afraid of the impact of solar arbitrages against the Czech Republic in the near future.
Tosoh SMD has introduced new transparent conducting oxide (TCO) sputtering targets that achieve higher solar cell efficiency than standard targets. Tosoh's new TCO targets are available in planar and rotary configurations and are composed of either traditional indium tin oxide (ITO) or aluminum zinc oxide (AZO).
DuPont Microcircuit Materials (MCM) has introduced a new series of aluminum photovoltaic metallization pastes for rear-side passivated crystalline silicon solar cell designs. DuPont ‘Solamet PV36x’ photovoltaic metallization pastes outperform conventional aluminum compositions by delivering up to 0.8% greater conversion efficiency for solar cells when used in Local Back Surface Field (BSF) designs.
DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions has introduced the ‘PV5400’ series thin ionomer-based encapsulant sheets designed to protect sensitive thin-film solar modules, while offering manufacturers new ways to cut costs, speed throughput and deliver more power over the life of each unit.
MBJ Solutions is expanding its product portfolio with a new SolarModule EL-quickline system. The SolarModule EL-quickcheck is designed as an alternative to the company's high resolution product platform, SolarModule EL-basic / EL-lab.
German-based Schletter GmbH has developed a novel cleaning system for PV module rooftop installations. The PVSpin is designed to be operated safely by one person and employs a twin rotating brush heads fed with water through a central nozzle.
Avago Technologies has introduced a new precision optical isolation amplifier for motor control and current sensing applications. The ACPL-790B, ACPL-790A and ACPL-7900 devices improve the accuracy and response times of the Avago isolation amplifier portfolio,
Having listened to more quarterly conference calls from listed companies than I care to mention, two contrasting characteristics are worth mentioning. In the PV industry, players such as First Solar get star treatment. With so many analysts on the call, questions are limited to one and no follow-up. At times, even with that policy in place, not all analysts get a chance to pose a question. However, the reverse can also happen.
McObject’s ‘eXtremeDB’ Fusion embedded database system, a Linux-based high performance embedded database system for solar power optimization, is being integrated with Azuray Technologies' DC-to-DC converters for 'smart' solar modules. Azuray needed a small, fast embedded database management system (DBMS) in its communications gateway but building a DBMS from scratch would be costly and take considerable development time.
