Solarbuzz has announced Finlay Colville as the new senior analyst who will be in charge of improving the company’s reporting on solar manufacturing equipment, which includes technologies and trends and forecasts in the solar industry. The new appointment comes after Solarbuzz’s recent acquisition by the NPD Group last month.
The non-profit organization, the SunPower Foundation, which is funded by SunPower Corp., will support the third phase of the Alliance for Mindanao Off-Grid Renewable Energy (AMORE III), the program to support renewable energy development, education and training on the Philippine island of Mindanao.
Solutia has announced plans to expand its manufacturing plant located in Suzhou, China. The site is used for the production of the company's Saflex polyvinyl butyral (PVB) interlayer for laminated glass.
Following on from a series of solar project developer acquisitions, First Solar is acquiring NextLight Renewable Power for approximately US$285 million. NextLight has a project pipeline worth 1.1GW, with sites located in the southwestern United States that range in size from 30MW to 290MW. With its project development acquisitions, First Solar has rapidly become a major player in the U.S. utility renewable power market.
Aide Solar, a subsidiary of the Panjit Group, publicized the grand opening of its Xuzhou, China, solar cell/module production facility. At over 1 million square feet, the new facility is reported to be able to increase the company’s poly- and monocrystalline silicon PV module capacity by 40%--a grand total of 350MW per year. The new plant has 12 solar cell production lines and brings the Aide Solar employee count to 1,184 people worldwide.
Thin-film photovoltaics firm Xunlight has received certification for its flexible, lightweight modules under the ANSI/UL 1703 standard for North American markets. The company says the certification applies to its XR-series of flexible photovoltaic rooftop modules for a range of power outputs up to 264W per panel, making Xunlight one of a handful of companies that have had their flexible PV panels certified.
Dow Corning and PV equipment supplier Reis Robotics have formed an alliance to promote the materials company's PV-6100 silicone-based encapsulants for solar module production applications. The new encapsulants, when used in conjunction with the manufacturing process, are said to outperform the industry standard EVA resins as a way to protect the solar cells in a PV panel.
The U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory has confirmed that flexible CIGS solar panels manufactured on SoloPower’s pilot production line have achieved aperture conversion efficiencies of 11% during tests at the lab's Golden, CO, facility--the highest efficiencies yet achieved by a full-size flex module. NREL had previously verified 13.4% efficiencies on the company’s 11.8cm2 lab cells.
Photovoltaic integrator Phoenix Solar and CIGS solar module manfacturer MiaSolé have signed a framework agreement that will run through 2013. The deal calls for MiaSolé to fulfill a Phoenix Solar order for an initial 4.5MW of copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide thin-film PV panels in the second quarter, with the remaining shipment amounts to be determined. The framework agreement also includes a recycling warranty where required by regulation or financing; at the end of the module’s lifetime, the customer can choose to have them taken away by MiaSolé and recycled, or reconditioned.
SolarBridge Technologies has obtained $15 million in series B funding with Rho Ventures, a new investor for the company who lead the round of financing. To date, SolarBridge has raised over $27 million.
