Adding to its ever-growing list of solar projects in California, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) has signed off on a 92MW solar thermal deal with Alpine SunTower, LLC, a subsidiary of NRG Energy, Inc. The project builds on eSolar and NRG’s existing collaborative agreement that saw the companies agree to bring around 500MW of solar thermal energy to the U.S.
Abound Solar is looking for a new CEO, as Pascal Noronha is stepping down as chief executive while taking over the role of chairman of the board of the CdTe thin-film PV company. Current chairman John Hill will remain on the board as a founding director.
Trina Solar and Spire have both improved their financial positions by securing new or expanding existing lines of credit. Trina said it has landed new credit facilities totaling $57 million from Standard Chartered Bank (China), consisting of trade financing and defensive hedging products. Spire said it has amended its current $3 million revolving credit facility with Silicon Valley Bank, adding another $5 million revolver, which adds up to $8 million available to the company over the next year.
Heraeus group’s PV materials sector has hired Tung Pham as research scientist for the organization; he will work primarily in the North American lab located in Pennsylvania. Under the direction of Weiming Zhang, PV research and development manager, Pham will be advancing the company’s current paste platforms and developing new PV materials.
Canadian Solar, Inc. has announced it will now offer a six-year warranty on all module materials and workmanship—an extension of four years on the previous duration. About 90% of Canadian Solar’s production volume is included, though the company's off-grid and specialty solar products may carry different warranty terms.
Sumco Phoenix Corporation is to close its silicon wafer manufacturing plant in Maineville, Ohio, USA due to the weaker than expected demand and semiconductor industry’s move to larger wafer sizes. The Ohio plant also makes solar silicon ingots, which will also be affected by the closure. Consolidating its operations, Sumco said that production would shift to its other plants in the U.S. and overseas.
High-purity metals and compounds supplier 5N Plus, Inc. has amended the materials supply contract with First Solar to run for an extra year to the end of July 2013. The companies have also agreed to increase the minimum amount of cadmium telluride (CdTe) ordered by First Solar by 50%.
Often touted as the next thin-film technology to take on cadmium telluride thin-film leader First Solar, copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) technology is set to grow and the use of indium, a key absorber material, will grow even faster. In a new report from NanoMarkets entitled ‘Indium Markets for Photovoltaics’, indium consumption is expected to see a rise of 80% by 2016, equating to 228 metric tons (MT) in 2016, up from the 20MT consumed today. However, the market research firm is forecasting that CIGS PV cells would represent only 8% of PV megawatts in that time.
ASYS is offering solar-cell metallization line upgrades to its customers, improvements that the tool and automation supplier says will increase capacity by as much as 22%. The upgrade kit consists of hardware and software changes and can be installed in three days.
Thin-film module manufacturer Sunfilm AG can now boast of five module sizes that have gained IEC certification, with the news that its larger module sizes have now received IEC 61646/EN 61730 certification. The company had been granted certification for two of its smaller module sizes earlier this year.
