Canadian Solar Inc. has opened its new 1500M2 PV Cell Research Center, which is located in the company’s solar cell Fab II in Suzhou. It consolidates the company’s R&D facilities to a single location and is meant to improve the efficiency and production yield of regular polysilicon cells and proprietary solar grade e-cells.
Digitimes reports that the Taiwan-based crystalline silicon solar cell producer E-Ton Solar Tech has received an order for 50MWp of solar cells from a previous client, with shipments to occur this year.
Market research firm, VLSI Research Inc., has compiled its inaugural, though currently a preliminary list of the Top 10 PV cell manufacturing equipment suppliers for 2008, based on sales. Although dominated by German based equipment suppliers, the market research firm noted that U.S. based Applied Materials was the largest supplier, with sales of US$455 million. Applied took the number one spot due to its acquisitions in recent years coupled with the recognition of revenues from its first ‘Sunfab’ turnkey thin-film installations, which entered production for the first time in 2008.
pvXchange has announced that Electrical Engingeer Martin Mesmer will be overseeing operations and sales as Sales Director for the North American PV-Market. Mr. Mesmer will be based in Oregon and California where he will be charged to develop the US business as one of the company’s core markets over the next few years.
Evergreen Solar, Inc. has appointed Chinua Ejeka to the role of Applications and Field Support Engineer for Europe. The appointment is an indicator of the company’s expansion efforts within Germany and Europe as a whole. Mr. Ejeka’s main responsibility in this role will be serving as Evergreen Solar's senior technical customer support representative for the company’s product and system performance throughout Europe.
Japanese utility Shikoku Electric Power Co. announced its plans to increase capacity at its only solar power plant by 4MW in stages by April 2010, according to Reuters.
Korea Advanced Materials (KMA), a joint venture between Hyundai Heavy and South Korean paint maker KCC Corp., has closed a US$600 million deal to supply polysilicon to Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. from 2010 to 2015.
One of the largest solar power installations in Maryland, Constellation Energy’s 1MW power plant in McCormick’s Spice Mill in Hunt Valley has been completed and will contribute savings of close to 30% of the Mill’s energy costs. The plant is comprised of 2,100 Solar World 175-watt crystalline solar panels and 92,000 square feet of lightweight, flexible thin-film photovoltaic material.
A subsidiary of Trina Solar Limited, Changzhou Trina Solar Energy Co., Ltd., has entered into a module supply contract with Gestamp Asetym Solar, S.L. (GA Solar). The order will see Trina supply between 20 and 36MW of modules over the next year. Some shipments of the modules, prices of which have been pre-determined as part of the deal, have already been received by GA Solar.
Entech Solar has announced its decision to promote the recent addition to its executive team, Sean Rooney, to the role of COO. Mr. Rooney joined the company in February 2008 as Vice President of the Company’s EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) Operations, and his appointment marks the second senior executive appointment in a few days, with Kent Van Houten’s appointment to the CFO role announced last week.
