At a two day event held in Atlantis, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, Mr. Sultan bin Sulayem, Chairman of Dubai World (pictured), announced the establishment of a photovoltaics manufacturing company, dubbed Solar Technologies FZE, which will build and operate a 130MW production plant in Dubai’s Technopark. Future plans include establishing manufacturing facilities in China, Mexico and Bulgaria, which will increase the total production capacity to 1GW by 2015.
Nitrogen trifluoride used in semiconductor, thin film solar and other electronics manufacturing has been found to be in greater quantities in the atmosphere than previously estimated and is increasing at about 11 percent per annum, according to new research using new analytical techniques, NASA said.
Honda Soltec said it will start selling copper-indium-gallium-(di)selenide thin-film-based solar modules for public and industrial use throughout Japan on Friday. The Honda solar subsidiary has sold photovoltaic modules for home use since October 2007, and now the company intends to expand its customer base by manufacturing and selling solar units capable of the high-capacity electrical generation required by public and industrial facilities.
Binghamton University officials, with U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, publicized the $4 million fund for the Binghamton’s Center for Autonomous Solar Power (CASP) making it the newest addition to the University’s existing New York State Center of Excellence in Small Scale Systems Integration and Packaging (S3IP). CASP will concentrate on making renewable energy readily accessible as a flexible, large-area and low-cost power source.
With the opening of its new Silicon Materials Technology and Evaluation Center (SIMTEC) in Freiberg, Germany, Fraunhofer ISE is extending research into materials, which includes multicrystalline block crystallization, block shaping through to wafering silicon epitaxy for crystalline silicon thin-film wafer equivalents. SIMTEC will also work on metallurgical grade silicon and its use for the production of solar cells.
In a supply deal worth approximately US$500 million (NOK 2.9 billion), REC will supply an Asia-based PV company with approximately 1,500MT per annum of silicon powder for a timeframe of seven years. Silicon powder, traditionally a low-value material, is a form of fine particulate silicon from the FBR process. The take-or-pay agreement is a result of REC’s development of technologies to develop this material and address commercial opportunities.
CVD Equipment Corporation stated that it has received a total of $25 million in orders since January 1, 2008, compared to $14 million orders received in the full 12 months in 2007. Around 50% of the orders in 2008 deal with the needs of the solar and energy markets and include CVD proprietary and patent pending thin-film solutions.
The Organic Photovoltaics 2009 event, organized by IntertechPira, will take place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from April 27 through 29, 2009. The event is being co-chaired by Russell Gaudiana of Konarka Technologies, Inc., and Dr. Dana Olson of the NREL. This year’s venue will provide an exceptional arena for industry experts, researchers, customers and investors to address the opportunities and most critical challenges for the commercialization of OPV technologies.
Tempress Systems, Inc., the subsidiary company of Amtech Systems, Inc., has received a $3 million order from a new European-based customer that supplies solar turnkey systems. The new order comes after two existing customers in Asia placed follow up orders in September 2008 for Tempress Systems diffusion tools and a separate follow-on solar order for its diffusion processing system in August from another existing customer in Asia.
ICP Solar Technologies said today that it has signed a binding letter of intent to buy privately held Ibersolar Energía, a leading European manufacturer and supplier of solar photovoltaic systems, solar thermal systems, and absorption units with annual sales of approximately €120 million.
