Henning Wicht, iSuppli's senior director and principal analyst for photovoltaics market research, has become increasingly bearish on the photovoltaics industry due to the severe overcapacity throughout the supply chain. In a new report, Wicht projects that PV module production--which is still expanding--will reach a capacity of 7.5GW in 2009, however installations will only reach 3.9GW. This means that nearly half of all solar panels produced in 2009 will remain unsold and a massive inventory build will persist until 2012.
DayStar Technologies, a copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide thin-film PV developer based in Santa Clara, CA, is running out of money. Although the company posted a smaller net loss in its just-announced second-quarter results than it experienced in the first quarter and the value of its net property and equipment has risen to $50 million because of increased investment during the period, its cash and cash equivalents have dwindled to $1.3 million. As a result of its financial woes, DayStar says it will need "substantial funds in the near term" to continue operations, ramp its first production line, and begin shipping products, and a failure to raise such monies may result in the company declaring bankruptcy and possibly shutting down part or all of its operations.
Meyer Burger is buying all the assets of Colorado Springs-based Diamond Wire Technology. The two companies have been cooperating in the marketing and development of diamond wire used for slicing silicon for the photovoltaic industry since 2003. Specifics of the monetary amount of the cash and shares transaction, which is expected to be completed in September, were not disclosed.
Based on results from its own pilot line, centrotherm photovoltaics has said that it has achieved CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) thin film module (0.1 m² size) efficiencies of 13% and expects its first customer for its turnkey system to achieve 12% efficiencies with 1.5 m² sized thin film modules, in 2009.
Dyesol and Corus' joint BIPV project to commercially manufacture dye solar cells (DSC) on steel, supported by £5 million from the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), has entered the next stage. This milestone is the fifth step in achieving the goal of DSC integrated onto strip steel in a coil coating line.
Sanyo plans to double solar panel production capacity at its factory in Shiga Prefecture amid surging demand created by the revival of government subsidies for homeowners, according to a news story in the Friday edition of the Nikkei picked up by the Dow Jones newswire.
The bankrupt French polysilicon production venture, Silicium de Provence S.A.S. (SilPro) in which Solon SE had a major stake, has been forced to make an impairment charge of €52 million consisting of write-downs of €39 million on the carrying value of its equity investment and of €13 million charge on the carrying amount of a shareholder loan related to the failed enterprise.
eSolar has commissioned a 5MW concentrating solar thermal power plant in the Antelope Valley in eastern Los Angeles County. The 24,000-mirror Sierra SunTower, which the company says is the only power tower of its kind currently operating in the U.S., produces electricity for Southern California Edison and can power more than 4000 homes in the area.
Suntech has been selected to supply more than 25,000 crystalline-silicon photovoltaic modules for Recurrent Energy's 5MW municipal solar power project atop the Sunset Reservoir in San Francisco, CA. The modules will be delivered by the fourth quarter of 2009, and the project will be completed in 2010, according to the participants.
Evolution Solar is moving its primary business office to China in a bid to cash in on the emerging solar market, including thin-film solar success, in that part of the world.
