Air Liquide has signed several new contracts since January to supply gases and onsite services to solar wafer and cell manufacturers in five countries. The company says it plans to invest €13 million to meet the needs of those customers.
Two up-and-coming solar balance-of-system companies have achieved significant milestones in their business plans. Enphase Energy has signed up electronics manufacturing services firm Flextronics to produce its microinverters, while Tigo Energy closed a $10 million Series B round to help fund its PV system maximization offering.
According to EuPD Research's estimations made in the new study: ‘The German PV Market Understand the Demand - Explore the Potential,’ two gigawatts of modules will be installed in Germany in 2009, restoring the country as the largest solar market in the world. Due to the strong private rooftop market in Germany, the market research firm believes that a total of 99GWp could be installed before saturation. The report has been issued to coincide with the largest solar event in the world, Intersolar 2009, being held this week in Munich, Germany.
Underwriters Laboratories said that it is expanding its existing photovoltaics testing lab in San Jose and will open new facilities in Germany and Japan in 2010. UL is also exploring new partnerships in Asia beyond its existing lab in Suzhou, China.
Skyline Solar has appointed Solon CTO Lars Podlowski to its board of directors. Podlowski was tapped by the high-gain solar/CPV company for his combination of extensive technical expertise in the implementation of large-scale solar products, systems, and plants as well as his intimate knowledge of European markets, which Skyline says will help it as the firm looks to expand globally.
GT Solar has received final acceptance for the design, installation, and commissioning of Solar Cells Hellas's integrated solar photovoltaic wafer and cell turnkey fabrication line in Patras, Greece--said to be the first PV manufacturing facility in the country. The multicrystalline-silicon production line has an annual capacity of 30 MW.
Timminco and Q-Cells have reached a new multiyear supply deal for solar-grade silicon, replacing the five-year agreement signed between the two companies in 2008. The new contract calls for deliveries by Timminco to Q-Cells of 100 metric tons of solar silicon for the rest of 2009.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has dedicated a 1-MW photovoltaic power station at the Robert A. Skinner Water Treatment Plant in Riverside County. The 10-acre solar field, which was built by SunPower, will generate about 2.4 million KW-hours of electricity, which will be equivalent to about 25% of the annual power needs of the facility.
The homegrown Russian solar photovoltaic industry appears on the verge of adding significant manufacturing capacity after news that that the Supervisory Council of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies, Rusnano, has approved the corporation's participation in a project to build a million-module-per year, 120-MW panel factory using micromorph-silicon thin-film PV technology provided by Oerlikon Solar.
BTU International has hired industry veteran Jan-Paul van Maaren as its new VP of marketing. He will report directly to company chairman/CEO Paul van der Wansem. Van Maaren is charged with all of BTU's strategic marketing and marketing communications activities, with an initial focus on the firm's solar markets.
