News

The Satcon PowerGate Plus 500kW inverter has been selected by Enfinity to supply two power stations at one of France's largest photovoltaic solar farms in Les Mees, Alpes-Haute-Provence.

Oerlikon Solar's customer, Baoding Tianwei Solar Films, has placed an upgrade order to increase its production capacity of thin-film silicon solar modules from 46MW amorphous technology to 75MW micromorph technology.

Egypt's Electricity Ministry has revealed plans to build a 100MW solar power plant, costing a total of US$700 million between 2012 and 2017. Located at Kom Ombo, near the Aswan High Dam hydro-electric plant, the project will be financed by a number of international institutions, including the African Development Fund and the World Bank. Additional finance is also expected to be provided through the UN's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon offsetting scheme.

Tempe, AZ-based pv recycling and Encros have signed an MOU to develop collection and recycling systems in North America and Europe. Under the terms of the agreement, Encros will develop, test, and operate recycling technologies, while pv recycling will implement and manage areas related to administration, logistics, and regulatory compliance.  

REC has successfully beaten 13 companies in the competition for a 1MW tender to supply PV panels for residential rooftop installations on Housing Development Board (HDB) homes in six precincts in Singapore. The PV panels will be installed on approximately 25 housing blocks as part of HDB's solar capability building program.

LDK Solar has signed a module supply contract with Italy-based Enel, for the supply of 50MW of LDK Solar branded modules throughout 2010. A total of 30MW will be delivered in the third quarter, with the option of an additional 20MW in the fourth quarter.

REC Solar and Tigo Energy have reached an agreement whereby REC Solar will offer the Tigo Energy Maximizer in its commercial and residential installations across the U.S. REC began the program for Tigo’s Maximizer with REC’s San Francisco Bay area installations in February and extended its reach to Los Angeles, San Diego and Colorado. This summer, all U.S. territories will have the Tigo Maximizer available for installations.

A joint development agreement has been signed between JA Solar and Innovalight to push cell conversion efficiencies past 20% for JA Solar’s recently introduced SECIUM high efficiency solar cells. The cell manufacturer has already achieved conversion efficiency of 18.9% using Innovalight’s nanotechnology-based silicon ink.

Stangl, the subsidiary of Singulus, has delivered one of its Linea texturing and inline coating machines to an unnamed European solar cell manufacturer. This order marks Singulus' first installation of a front-end system, with the combination of phosphor cleaning and anti-reflective coating.

A portion of a former nuclear testing ground in Nevada has been chosen as the site of the U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Demonstration Zone, where new concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) technologies will be tested as part of efforts to link advanced technology development and full-scale commercialization efforts. The lands, consisting of more than 25 square miles in the southwest corner of the site, are owned by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Land Management and administered by DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration.