DuPont and the U.S. Department of Energy will collaborate in a $9 million solar research program to develop ultrathin moisure-barrier material solutions for flexible thin-film photovoltaics. Some $3 million of the funding for the three-year effort comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, with DuPont contributing the remaining $6 million.
SMA Solar Technology AG has inaugurated its new 18,000 square meter solar inverter factory, which takes its annual production capacity to 4GW. The facility is also claimed to be the first of its kind to be CO2 neutral. The electricity and heat demand is covered by renewable energy sources that include a 1.1MW integrated PV system and a combined heat and power plant fueled with bio-gas generates CO2-neutral electricity. The company obtains additional power for the facility from other renewable sources.
UMG silicon hopeful Solarvalue AG has cancelled its upgraded metallurgical grade silicon (UMG-Si) supply contract with Moser Baer Group. Their UMG-Si method was to be expanded into full-scale UMG production at its Slovenian manufacturing site, but Solarvalue has not been able to achieve required purity levels in laboratory tests. In addition, UMG and polysilicon prices have declined substantially, making current production processes economically unrealistic.
Yingli Green, a vertically integrated PV manufacturer, is set to start providing modules on a 10MW on-grid solar plan with SDIC Huajing Power Holding in Dunhuang, Gansu Province. The provincial Development and Reform Commission in Gansu and the State Development and Investment Corporation have approved the project.
Update July 2nd: Suntech's press office has confirmed the news of a planned 500MW project for Panzhihua, China. The deal is "a non-binding strategic agreement similar to our agreement with the Qinghai government," said our source, and could potentially lead to the Chinese PV market becoming much bigger than expected in the not-too-distant future.
Independent designer and manufacturer of strain-balanced quantum-well solar cells, QuantaSol Ltd., a spinout from Imperial College, London, has announced what it believes to be the most efficient single junction cell ever manufactured, achieving efficiency levels of 28.3%.
Bruker BioSpin is celebrating its first order for an Elexsys E780 system, dubbed the world’s first commercial mm-wave 263 Gigahertz (GHz) EPR (electron paramagnetic resonance) spectrometer. The order was received from the Helmholtz-Zentrum in Berlin and will be used for researching new EPR applications in solar energy technology. It marks the first step in a collaborative research partnership between the two companies on EPR probe development for electrical detection.
Solar Holding Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Roth & Rau, is buying 100% of the shares of Romaric Corp., a manufacturing execution systems company based in Salt Lake City. In addition to boosting its presence in the U.S. market, Roth & Rau said it hopes to use Romaric's extensive experience in the field of software automation for semiconductor and other highly standardized manufacturing companies to extend its own products and services offering to its customers in the solar photovoltaic sector.
Eyelit, Inc. has shipped one of its integrated manufacturing execution software (MES) suites to materials technology company Umicore for production of germanium wafers at its Olen, Belgium-based Electro-Optic Materials Business Unit. The company intends to roll out the system to Quapaw, Oklahoma in the second half of this year.
Although there was a mild rebound in cleantech venture capital investments in the second quarter of 2009, reaching US$1.2 billion in 85 deals, compared to US$836 million in 59 deals in the previous quarter, the latest quarterly report from Greentech Media shows that VC funding in the solar sector has declined for the fourth successive quarter in a row. VC investment in solar was US$333.4 million in 17 deals, down from US$836.1 million invested in Q109 from 14 separate deals, approximately a 60% fall in funding.
