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.
A decision has been made to reinstate guaranteed purchases of green certificates in Italy for 2010 since the announcement that the government would stop them halted investment in the sector. However, the government plans to overhaul the certificates once again in 2011 in order to avoid speculation.
PowerFin Partners announced that it has reached capacity to fund over $100 million in commercial and utility-scale solar projects in the U.S. and Canada. PowerFin provides the PPA, EPC, O&M and site lease contracts along with engineering for the full operation of a solar generation facility.
JA Solar Holdings and Solar-Fabrik have signed a supply agreement that will see JA Solar provide 70MW of PV products through the end of 2010. This is just one of several partnerships the two companies have engaged in since 2008.
Despite only a small improvement in solar inverter component supply expected in the second-half of the year, IMS Research has raised its forecast for global photovoltaics system installations. The market research firm expects installs to reach 14.6 GW, a 95% increase from 2009 and nearly three times size of the market back in 2008. Increased demand from Germany and other European countries is fuelling demand but growth in other regions such as the U.S. is playing a part, IMS Research said.
Yingli Green has begun the initial production of its latest 400MW capacity expansion, including 300MW of Panda monocrystalline silicon-based production capacity at the Baoding headquarters, and 100MW of multicrystalline silicon-based production capacity in Haikou, Hainan Province.
LDK Solar has signed a contract to supply 13MW of solar modules to the Power Systems division of Italy-based ABB. The modules will be delivered in the third quarter of 2010 in the first stage of a wider cooperation agreement, which is under negotiation, to supply ABB with larger volumes of solar modules in the remainder of 2010 and 2011.
Leshan Ledian Tianwei Silicon-Tech formally signed itsacknowledgement that it had chosen Poly Plant Project’s (PPP) CVD silicon deposition Reactor for Leshan’s polysilicon product plant in Leshan, China.
