SunPower teamed up with the Rancho California Water District (RCWD) for the development and construction of a 1.1-MW solar power system at the district's water treatment facility in Murrieta, which has now reached completion.
Atlas Material Testing Technology’s Solar/PV Center of Excellence in Phoenix, Arizona has added two further services to its portfolio. Services for solar simulator classification and I-V Curve tracing will aid solar companies to substantiate product warranty and efficiency claims.
SolarWorld will begin construction soon on a new building adjacent to its Hillsboro, OR, production plant. The 210,000 sq. ft. facility, scheduled for completion in November, will house a combination of logistics and manufacturing activities. The company said that the new structure will allow it to realign production operations to make more efficient space of the main building's full capacity.
Copper-indium-gallium-di-selenide (CIGS) thin-film start-up, DayStar Technologies has said that its auditor Hein & Associates LLP of Irvine, California included an audit opinion in its latest SEC financial filings that contained a going concern notice. The company had posted losses of approximately US$26 million in 2008 and acknowledged that it needed to raise further capital to continue development of its CIGS technology and bring the product to market.
Evergreen Solar has entered into an agreement with RMT, Inc., a renewable energy projects firm, to boost sales of its String Ribbon modules into the utility-scale solar plant market, which is expected to grow rapidly under new renewable energy strategies, recently adopted as part of the U.S economic stimulus pacts. The new agreement will see RMT handle all engineering, procurement and construction functions while Evergreen Solar will provide the solar panels.
Chalking up another milestone, First Solar has said it has now produced a combined 1GW of CdTe thin film modules since production first started in early 2002. The thin film leader expects to have a nominal production capacity of approximately 1.2GW by the end of 2009, which equates to 23 manufacturing lines from plants on three continents.
Chinese semiconductor foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC) has announced plans to spin off its solar cell and chip packaging and testing units. The Reuters report claimed that the company would list the spun-off divisions’ shares and set up new solar cell production lines in Shanghai.
Applied Materials is set to expand its ‘SunFab’ thin-film module and c-Si testing and R&D facility in Xi’an, China, after a tour at the facility, which was opened in 2008 by Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang. Claimed to be the first facility of its kind in China, Applied Materials said it had recently broken ground on phase two of its new ‘Global Solar R&D Center,’ which will include R&D, engineering, demonstration, validation and training for both crystalline silicon and thin-film solar equipment and processes.
Despite a major fall-off in installations in the fourth quarter of 2008 due to the early onset of winter in Germany, a complete end of projects in Spain and large-scale project finance difficulties due to the financial crisis, Phoenix Solar AG posted record sales for 2008, reaching €402 million, compared to €260 million in 2007. Based on its current backlog, the PV systems integrator expects sales to reach approximately €520 million in 2009.
In December of 2008, Ontario's Premier Dalton McGuinty and Energy Minister George Smitherman revealed a proposition called the Green Energy Act, in attempt to grant priority to Renewable Energy Sources to Manage Global Climate Change, Protect the Environment and Streamline Project Approvals. In addition to bringing more renewables to Ontario, this plan would create more energy efficient methods to help conserve energy. The Public Consultation period extends until March 26, 2009 and can be found here.
