News

Surfect Technologies, Inc. has said that it has received a Letter ofIntent from a Texas-based solar company for up to ten of its ‘Solargy’single cell electrolytic plating tools. This is the first order thecompany has received from a solar manufacturer. The tools are expectedto be delivered throughout 2008 and 2009, the company said.

Due to continued polysilicon supply constraints, the price per kilogramof scrap wafers has reached $300 US dollars in a recent auction,according to a news story at DIGITIMES . This compares now with recent polysilicon supply contracts that are in the region of $300-330 per kilogram.

According to a news story at DIGITIMES, Gintech Energy hasreduced its solar production expansion targets for 2008. Instead ofguiding for 250MWp, the company has said that it will now reach 220MWp.

China Nuvo Solar Energy, Inc. has signed a letter of intent withPhotovoltaics, Inc. to purchase certain patents that had previouslybeen licensed to China Nuvo under a ten-year agreement.

Solaicx has officially opened its new monocrystalline silicon ingotsand wafer manufacturing plant in Portland, Oregon. The new plant has aninitial capacity of 32MW per annum with a projected capacity of 180MWof silicon ingots and wafers per annum.

A new PV cell start-up based in Italy, SOLSONICA S.p.A., hascommissioned M+W Zander Italia S.r. to convert part of an existing ICmemory module assembly plant owned by parent company EEMS S.p.A. into aPV cell manufacturing plant in Rieti, Italy.

HelioVolt has added two key executives to its Board of Directors,namely, E. Kenneth Pentimonti, Principal at Paladin Capital and RonaldD. Bernal (pictured), Partner at Sequel Venture Partners.  Both ofthese new Board members were recent contributors to HelioVolt’s recent$101 million fund.

Analog and mixed-signal semiconductor specialist Micrel Inc has saidthat it has signed a long-term, multimillion dollar contract with anunidentified customer to supply commercial concentrated solar cellsusing its existing semiconductor fab, based in San Jose, California.

China Sunergy is to supply Canadian Solar with a total volume of 25MWof solar cells for 2008. Under the Agreements, China Sunergy willsupply approximately 12MW and 13MW of solar cells to Canadian Solar inthe first and second half of the year respectively.

Family run and privately held Baccini S.p.A, a specialist equipment manufacturer in the field of crystalline silicon (c-Si) photovoltaic (PV) cells, has been acquired by Applied Materials for $330 million in cash. Baccini was founded in 1967 and is regarded as an innovator in automated material handling, especially in respect to ultra-thin solar wafers. The transaction is expected to close in early 2008, according to the companies.