Ryne P. Raffaelle has been named director of the National Center for Photovoltaics at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Most recently, he was academic director for the Golisano Institute for Sustainability and director of the NanoPower Research Laboratory at Rochester Institute of Technology (NY).
A new world record of 99.03 % for the efficiency of inverters used in photovoltaic systems has been set by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE. Key to the new record was using junction field-effect transistors (JFETs) made of silicon carbide (SiC) manufactured by SemiSouth Laboratories as well as improving the circuit technology used in the device.
Ersol Thin Film, a subsidiary of ersol Solar Energy AG, has announced that it is launching its first micromorph thin-film module under the name Vega-T.
Solar power module manufacturer Schott Solar has been awarded the certificate for quality and sustainability in manufacturing by Italy's largest energy supplier, Enel.
Taiwan-based Formosa Chemicals & Fibre Corp., a petrochemical production company, has announced that it will invest $1.03 billion to set up a solar-grade poly-Si factory in central Taiwan, according to a Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN) report.
Continuing to demonstrate benchmark revenue growth in a difficult market for photovoltaic manufacturers, First Solar Inc has posted second-quarter revenue of US$525.9 million, up from US$418.2 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2009. In the same quarter of 2008, First Solar generated revenue of US$267 million. First Solar has now generated revenue of US$944.1 million in the first six months of fiscal 2009.
FedEx Ground, the small-package shipping unit of FedEx, plans to have installed what it calls the largest rooftop solar-electric system in the United States at its distribution hub in Woodbridge, NJ. The project is the third between a FedEx operating company and BP Solar and the fifth solar power project for FedEx. The 2.42MW photovoltaic power system will employ about 12,400 BP panels across approximately 3.3 acres of rooftop space.
Spire has delivered a turnkey photovoltaic module assembly line to Sova Power, located in Durgapur, West Bengal, India. The semiautomated crystalline-silicon module manufacturing line can produce up to 12MW of PV panels annually and can be expanded as needed in the future.
PVNext Corp., a joint venture between Taiwan-based Ritek and Netherlands-based Scheuten Solar Holding B.V. has announced an investment of NT$500 million from Taiwan's National Development Fund.
Up to $11.8 million will be invested by the U.S. Department of Energy in five projects designed to advance the next stage of development of solar energy grid integration systems (SEGIS), as part of a partnership program begun by DOE in 2008. The selected projects focus on the most promising technology advances and include development of intelligent system controls.
