Based on results from its own pilot line, centrotherm photovoltaics has said that it has achieved CIGS (copper indium gallium diselenide) thin film module (0.1 m² size) efficiencies of 13% and expects its first customer for its turnkey system to achieve 12% efficiencies with 1.5 m² sized thin film modules, in 2009.
Dyesol and Corus' joint BIPV project to commercially manufacture dye solar cells (DSC) on steel, supported by £5 million from the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG), has entered the next stage. This milestone is the fifth step in achieving the goal of DSC integrated onto strip steel in a coil coating line.
Sanyo plans to double solar panel production capacity at its factory in Shiga Prefecture amid surging demand created by the revival of government subsidies for homeowners, according to a news story in the Friday edition of the Nikkei picked up by the Dow Jones newswire.
The bankrupt French polysilicon production venture, Silicium de Provence S.A.S. (SilPro) in which Solon SE had a major stake, has been forced to make an impairment charge of €52 million consisting of write-downs of €39 million on the carrying value of its equity investment and of €13 million charge on the carrying amount of a shareholder loan related to the failed enterprise.
eSolar has commissioned a 5MW concentrating solar thermal power plant in the Antelope Valley in eastern Los Angeles County. The 24,000-mirror Sierra SunTower, which the company says is the only power tower of its kind currently operating in the U.S., produces electricity for Southern California Edison and can power more than 4000 homes in the area.
Suntech has been selected to supply more than 25,000 crystalline-silicon photovoltaic modules for Recurrent Energy's 5MW municipal solar power project atop the Sunset Reservoir in San Francisco, CA. The modules will be delivered by the fourth quarter of 2009, and the project will be completed in 2010, according to the participants.
Evolution Solar is moving its primary business office to China in a bid to cash in on the emerging solar market, including thin-film solar success, in that part of the world.
A two megawatts photovoltaics farm is to be installed by SunWorks Solar Systems after the company signed a letter of intent to design, outlining plans for the solar energy project intended for central Florida.
By using high-grade materials for module production, Mage Solar has been able to expand the product and power guarantee of its modules to 10 years and 30 years respectively.
Enel SpA, the Italian power company, has announced that it will sell a 49% stake in its Green Power renewable unit; this move will be done in two stages.
