News

Umicore is to double the production of germanium substrates used for high-efficiency solar cells with the construction of a new manufacturing facility in Quapaw, Oklahoma, U.S.A. Construction is expected to start in July 2008, and to be completed in the spring of 2010, allowing Umicore to achieve a company total wafer run rate of 900,000 per annum when fully ramped.

China Sunergy has signed a wafer supply agreement with REC Wafer for supply of monocrystalline 156mm wafers over a seven-year period from early 2009 to 2015. The agreement will see China Sunergy pay in excess of $400 million for the wafers, the amount and price of which are fixed according to the wafer thickness and year of shipment.

China Sunergy has announced the addition of a further Independent Director to its Board. Merry Tang, a finance and accounting executive, took up the role on June 24th, replacing Mr. Alan Smith who resigns from the role on June 30th. Ms. Tang succeeds Mr. Smith as Chairman of the Audit Committee on July 1st.

Suniva has signed a long-term monocrystalline silicon wafer purchase order with REC to meet its initial PV production plans of 32MW capacity, and to reach 130MW over the next two years. The contract, Suniva said, ensures access to more than $300 million worth of monocrystalline silicon wafers through 2013.

Spire Corp. has announced the delivery of a solar module production line to ET Solar Group, located in the People’s Republic of China. Equipped with this line, ET Solar will be capable of producing up to 15MW of solar modules per annum.

SVTC Technologies has officially launched its Silicon Valley Photovoltaic Development Center, with the aim of becoming a leading RD&E center for the global photovoltaics industry. The new center is located in an 87,000 square foot facility in south San Jose, California, and cost between $20 and $30 million. The facility will also house a 5MW turnkey solar manufacturing line from Roth & Rau.

In a new report on the solar inverter market from IMS Research, revenues are projected to double in less than four years as a consequence of the continued fast-paced expansion of the photovoltaics industry. The market is led by SMA Solar Technology, according to IMS Research,controlling 33 percent of the global solar inverter market in 2007.

groSolar has signed a  follow-on $175 million deal for solar module supply from Evergreen Solar for the commercial and residential solar market in North America. The contract will continue through 2012. The two companies had signed a previous contract worth $88 million in 2006.

With the photovoltaic industry growing at a compound annual growth rate of 40 percent through 2010, iSuppli Corp. is projecting that the global production of PV cells will reach 12GW by 2010, up from 3.5GW in 2007. To reach that figure, as many as 400 production lines with at least 1MW of PV cell production per year will be established, a four-fold increase from about 90 to 100 production lines in existence at the end of 2007, iSuppli said. Importantly, iSuppli sees the number of 1GW scale fabs to grow as part of the photovoltaic industry’s cost reduction strategies.

A new study by clean-tech research publisher Clean Edge and Co-op America, a non-profit green-economy organization, has suggested that the U.S. could attain production of 10% of its electricity requirements via solar power by the year 2025. The Utility Solar Assessment (USA) study provides a roadmap for use by utilities and regulators, as well as solar power companies, which outlines the necessity for involvement of utilities in scaling solar power in order to reach the 10% goal.