Oerlikon Solar maintained a comfortable lead in 2008 among among solar turnkey manufacturing line providers in rankings released by VLSI Research. Centrotherm took over the second-place slot from Roth & Rau, which dropped to the third position, while Applied Materials and Schmid Gruppe rounded out the top five.
Phoenix Solar’s wholly-owned subsidiary Phoenix Solar Energy Investments has extended its project development agreement with Trier-based Bürgerservice GmbH for a further two years. The agreement, which was finalised at Intersolar in Munich at the end of May, will see the construction of PV power plants with a volume worth approximately €100 million in 2010 and 2011.
Israel-based Sunday Energy said this week it had closed a deal to build the largest rooftop solar installation in the Middle East, according to a report from Cleantech Group. Though the plant’s capacity is just 1MW, for Israel it is the beginning of a new solar market, according to Sunday Energy founder and CEO Kobi Dinar. By 2020, the country hopes to reach 20% of energy supplied by renewable sources.
U.S.-headquartered Worldwide Energy and Manufacturing USA, Inc., via its Shanghai-based wholly-owned subsidiary Shanghai Intech Electro-Mechanical Products Co., Ltd., has announced that it has dispatched its first PV module shipment in the U.S. The company has also received UL certification for its solar module products, which was required in order for the company to sell modules in the U.S. market.
EDF EN Canada, a company of the EDF Energies Nouvelles family, announced its intention to start construction of a 23.4MW (DC) photovoltaic power plant near Arnprior, Ontario.
Ubbink Solar Modules B.V., a 100% subsidiary of Centrosolar, will close down its solar module plant located in Doesburg (NL), though it will remain as a legal entity and will fulfil any financial obligations. The closure is a direct result of the financial crisis of Ecostream Switzerland GmbH.
Oerlikon Solar's KAI 1200 PECVD (Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition) tool, used for the deposition of silicon absorber layers on thin film glass substrates, was acknowledged by expert solar industry judges and online voting as "the best technical product for thin film manufacturing" during the first annual Cell Award ceremonies, which were held during Intersolar in Munich last week.
Despite the current economic gloom, Saxony-Anhalt in Germany continues to be a key attraction for industries, not least the solar industry. At a recent conference, held in Berlin, it was noted by Prime Minister Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Bohmer and the Minister for Economic Affairs Dr. Reiner Haseloff that more than €9 billion had been invested in the region from international investors since 1991. The result was the direct creation of over 36,000 jobs.
Schott Solar will shutter its 15-MW module manufacturing facility in Billerica, MA, effective July 31 as part of efforts to streamline its global manufacturing operations. The move will affect 180 full-time employees and 45 temporary workers at the plant, although the company said it will offer jobs to those affected at other sites where available.
The Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory has tapped Optomec's aerosol jet deposition system to be part of its atmospheric processing platform in the Process Development and Integration Lab in Golden, CO. The noncontact system will be used primarily to develop deposition processes for metallization and coatings to reduce the cost of production of crystalline silicon and thin-film solar photovoltaic cells.
