News

Calisolar has appointed Sandra Beach Lin as its new CEO, replacing the outgoing Roy Johnson. The company, which says it is shipping a megawatt a week, made the move as the latest step in building the executive team to lead it through its rapid scale-up into a high-volume, low-cost manufacturer of UMG silicon PV cells.

What's being called the largest solar power system in Tennessee and the Tennessee Valley Authority region has been inaugurated. The 1MW site, featuring thousands of Sharp crystalline-silicon modules, is located in Knoxville and was developed, designed, and constructed by Natural Energy Group and its integrator unit, Efficient Energy of Tennessee, which will also maintain the facility.

As part of its overall cost reduction strategy, Energy Conversion Devices is realigning solar manufacturing capacity in its United Solar business among its existing facilities. Effective this fall, the company will shift certain final assembly operations for its laminates from the Auburn Hills, MI, campus to the Tijuana, Mexico, facility, while continuing to manufacture its proprietary flexible triple-junction amorphous-silicon thin-film solar cells at the Auburn Hills site.

Canadian Solar will build its first PV module manufacturing facility outside China in Guelph, Ontario. The $24 million facility, which is being developed by the company's Canadian Solar Solutions subsidiary, will have an annualized capacity of 200MW once fully operational and is expected to be ready to begin production in early 2011.

Having been the managing director and COO at the centrotherm SiTec GmbH subsidiary for the last three years, Frank Stubhan has been appointed CEO of centrotherm photovoltaics AG's thin film module division, effective Sept. 1. 2010. Stubhan will be responsible for the next phase in the growth of its thin-film offerings, the company said.

Further to the company’s recent announcement of partnering with hotel chain BluSerena in Italy, Conergy has completed its fifth and sixth solar parks in the Apulia region of the country, which together have a total capacity of 1.5MW. The Parabita park has a capacity of 1MW and is kitted out with more than 4,600 Conergy PowerPlus modules, while the 500kW Nardo installation features almost 2,200 of the modules.

LDK Solar posted record revenues for the second quarter, resulting in significant increases in gross margin and net income. The PV manufacturer shipped nearly 20% more wafers and 136% more modules compared to the previous quarter, and increased its wafering capacity to 2.3GW in June. The company expects revenues for the third quarter to be slightly above those of the just-completed period and to near the $2 billion mark for the fiscal year.

Nanosys and Samsung have formed a strategic alliance and licensing arrangement to accelerate the development of commercial applications of nano-architected materials for the electronics and thin-film solar markets. Under the terms of the deal, Samsung Electronics will contribute funding and resources to codevelop products using Nanosys technologies. Samsung Venture Investment Corp. will make a $15 million equity investment in the nanotechnology company, along with an additional $10 million to be contributed by venture firms including Arch Venture, Polaris, Venrock, and El Dorado.

Tasked with managing the integration of recently acquired companies as well as being in charge of production, quality management, supply chain amongst other duties, Roth & Rau has appointed former CEO of acquired OTB, Dr. Paul Breddels as its new Chief Operating Officer.

Citing a turnaround in the number of orders, especially for its back-end line technology for manufacturing crystalline solar cells, Manz Automation has posted revenue of €67.5 million in the first-half of 2010. The solar and FPD equipment supplier saw revenue double compared to the same period a year ago when revenue was reported at €28.28 million, a 139% increase. Order backlog as improved to above €100 million, the company said. Revenue guidance for the year was put at €140 million with the potential for upside.