With plans to boost its sales into the photovoltaic market to over $1 billion in sales in the next five years from approximately $300 million currently, DuPont has said that it will more than double its production capacity of thick-film metallization pastes at its Electronic Materials DuPont Dongguan Ltd. (EMDD) facility in China.
The new polycrystalline photovoltaic module that boasts a claimed efficiency rate of 14.4% is due to be launched on June 18th by Sharp Corp. The company claims that the product’s structural differences mean that they are capable of the highest solar-to-electric conversion rate in the industry. The new module has an installation capacity up to 1.5-2 times greater than other modules due to better wind pressure resistance.
Eyelit has said that SYSTEMA GmbH will now offer consulting services and product sales for Eyelit’s manufacturing software suite of products across Europe as the demand for its products has increased in the region. SYSTEMA is already a trained Eyelit solution provider.
A collaborative research agreement has been signed between Akrion, Inc. and CEA-Liten that will see the equipment supplier and technological research organisation work together on the development of silicon-based heterojunction solar cells. The aim of the joint development is to create a specific process to manufacture cells at up to 20% efficiency using a high productivity process.
PLG Power Limited, the Energy and Power division of PLG Group, Mumbai, India, has placed a 25MW turnkey photovoltaic (PV) module production line order with Spire Corporation. This is PLG Power’s first operation in the PV industry.
Hemlock Semiconductor, the joint venture of Dow Corning, Shin-Etsu Handotai and Mitsubishi Materials, has said that it has started polysilicon production at its $1.5 billion expansion project in Hemlock, Michigan, USA. Hemlock reiterated that the expansion would add approximately 9,000 metric tons of polysilicon annually,
Canadian Solar, Inc. (CSI) and Becancour Silicon, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Timminco, Ltd., have confirmed that they have reached the supply and quality targets as set out in their original contract of April 4th, 2007. As a result of this, Canadian Solar plans to formally launch its e-Module product at the Intersolar Trade Show in Munich on June 12-14th, 2008.
Robert Bosch GmbH has acquired an initial 50.45 percent share holding in ersol Solar Energy AG, in a deal costing €546.4 million in cash. The sale was organized by Ventizz Capital, a major investor in ersol since 2004. Bosch is said to be submitting a public offer for the remaining ersol shares. The acquisition of ersol by Bosch is to enable the company to continue its activities in the renewable energy sector. “The Ventizz II fund has supported ersol during the set-up and rapidexpansion stages. After becoming a major and profitable solar producerover the past four years...
A new thin-film amorphous photovoltaic manufacturing company has been formed under the Masdar Initiative, Abu Dhabi's renewable energy program, dubbed Masdar PV. The new company will initially invest $600 million in two separate SunFab turnkey 5.7 m2 module production lines supplied by Applied Materials in Erfurt, Germany and in Abu Dhabi. Total investment has been put as $2 billion with an expected capacity in excess of 1GW of annual production by 2014. The combined initial production capacity of the two sites was said to be 210 megawatts, with the capacity already committed to PV system installers in Europe and projects for Masdar itself.
Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. has acquired a minority stake in Shunda Holdings, a China-based solar wafer manufacturer. The transaction saw Suntech hand over $98.9 million to Actis, a private equity investor for emerging markets, and to Waichun Investment Fund.
