Taiwan-based solar cell producer Neo Solar Power (NSP) has posted its 10th consecutive month of increased revenue, reaching a new record high of approximately US$84.1 million (NT $2.44 billion) for January, which represented a 5.74% increase month-over-month, and 150.06% year-over-year. NSP has raised its capacity expansion target to 1.3GW in 2011, up from the 1.2GW previously guided.
EPIR Technologies has joined a select group of solar cell developers by creating a polycrystalline cadmium telluride (CdTe) cell for commercial use with an efficiency exceeding 15%.
A twenty-year veteran in the electric utility and electric equipment manufacturing industry, Dr. Ali Chowdhury, is the new vice president of transmission and interconnection planning for 8minutenergy Renewables. In his new role, Chowdhury will oversee the development and business features necessary to bring solar PV projects to their full realization in a swift period of time.
A team of scientists at the Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM) has developed a glass-like barrier layer that separates the metal carrier from the absorber film. The new material is said to increase the efficiency of metal-based CIGS thin-film solar cells by as much as 13%.
Flextronics and eSolar have signed a deal that calls for the electronic manufacturing services company to provide electromechanical design capabilities to the concentrating solar thermal power plant developer. Flextronics will focus its design services efforts relating to eSolar's next-generation heliostats and solar collector systems at its Plano, TX, location.
Utility-scale developer SolarReserve has been awarded its final Certificates of Environmental Compatibility (CEC) from the Arizona Corporation Commission for its 150MW Crossroads Solar Energy Project to be built near Gila Bend. The approval includes the associated transmission line connecting the CSP project to Arizona Public Service’s transmission grid.
Avnet Electronics Marketing Americas and STMicroelectronics have teamed up to create a series of technical videos focusing on the challenges and solutions in PV system development.
solarhybrid has signed a strategic partnership with an unnamed Italian developer for a series of upcoming projects. The companies will collaborate on projects of varying size and they hope to have established a portfolio totalling around 30MW by the end of 2011.
Preliminary financial results from SolarWorld show the integrated module manufacturer posted revenue of €1.3 billion in 2010, a 29% increase over the previous year, when revenue of €1.01 billion was reported. Shipments of wafers and solar modules also increased over the previous year, reaching 819MW, up 42% over figures logged in 2009 when shipments reached 578MW.
A sudden rise in the number of solar power installations in Italy is being investigated by the government over fears of feed-in tariff (FiT) fraud, according to Industry Minister Paolo Romani.
