Sixtron has recently announced the selection of Bates M. Marshall as Vice President for Sales and Marketing, beginning immediately. Marshall carries with him near 15 years of sales and marketing experience in the semiconductor, solar, flat panel display and related markets.
AXT, Inc., a company that manufacturers compound semiconductor substrates, publicized its charter membership in the CPV Consortium, a global industry organization that aids the growth and long-term success of the concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) industry with the aim to provide a low-cost, dependable source of energy. APX joins 3M, Concentrix, Emcore, ISFOC, Isofoton, Solfocus and Veeco as members.
Three North Carolina companies have come together to purchase, build, own and operate a former landfill for a large-scale solar energy project in the western part of the state. Progress Energy Carolinas signed an agreement with FLS Energy to purchase the output from a 1 MW solar power plant on the former landfill site that is owned by Evergreen Packaging, Incorporated. FLS will build, own and operate the solar PV project and sell the energy produced back to the utility so that it can be distributed to its customers.
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.
