Tempress Systems, the solar subsidiary of Amtech Systems, revealed that it has collected around US$37 million in new solar orders for its diffusion processing systems from new and existing Asia-based customers. Taking into account the most recent order, Amtech has so far received around US$157 million in orders for the 2010 fiscal year.
Silicon Genesis (SiGen) has made a move towards what it deems as a replacement of the wire saw process with the production of solar wafers using its PolyMax system. SiGen has produced 85μm thick, 156 mm square kerf-free monocrystalline silicon wafers; Kerf being a material that is translated into saw dust and used in the sawing process.
Not only has Veeco Instruments welcomed Dr. Johannes Segner as its new chief technology officer for their solar equipment segment, but the company also announced that at its solar technical seminar on September 6, 2010, at EU-PVSEC in Valencia, Spain, Segner will be presenting “Designing a Best-of-Breed CIGS Thermal Deposition Factory, Lessons Learned & Futures Considerations.” Veeco will be highlighting its solar manufacturing equipment at the September 6-9 tradeshow.
Plans that were originally rejected by a New Mexico Public Regulations Commission hearing examiner for an 80MW renewable energy plan have been modified by PNM Resources to a 22MW utility-scale solar power facility and collectively approved for installation at several sites throughout the state of New Mexico. Regulators capped the facilities’ cost at US$101.7 million...
As PSE&G continues forward with its ambitious project to install 80MW of solar capacity in New Jersey, Noveda Technologies has been chosen for its SunFlow Monitor to provide PSE&G with the hardware, software and operational support services to monitor the performance of its solar installations. The SunFlow should allow PSE&G to oversee all the installations in the state from one system with the first project under the contract expected to be running in the next two weeks.
Johanna Solar Technology’s acquisition by the Bosch Group has now been completed, and the company will from hereon in be known as Bosch Solar CISTech GmbH. The company’s new name has been entered into the Commercial Registry and the thin-film solar module manufacturer will continue its operations under this new name.
Less than one week after announcing its ramp up of Tedlar production in North Carolina, DuPont has unveiled plans to double the production capacity for its Solamet photovoltaic metallization pastes. DuPont asserts that it is trying to stay ahead of the growing solar demand and acknowledges that the increase is in-line with its expectation for its sales to reach US$1 billion in 2011 and US$2 billion by 2014.
Mecasolar is on target to reach a total of 4,200 solar trackers installed in Italy by the end of 2010. These projects combine to reach an output of approximately 42MW, placing the Spanish company in a leading position in its sector in the Italian market.
India's new and renewable energy minister, Farooq Abdullah, has revealed that the government is targeting 1,000MW of solar power by 2013, 500MW of which will be solar photovoltaic and 500MW solar thermal. The first installation will begin in West Bengal, where a demo tidal wave power project of 100MW will be executed, shortly followed by switching 100 telecom towers from diesel to solar power for cooling, Abdullah said.
New York-based private equity firm New Mountain, a subsidiary of New Mountain Capital, has paid US$280 million for the acquisition of Mallinckrodt Baker (MBI) from Covidien. MBI’s operations and scope are expected to continue as normal, with Raj Gupta, former CEO of Rohm and Haas and senior advisor to New Mountain, taking the helm as chairman of the board.
