A change of image and specialty has led Manz Automation AG to drop its ‘middle name’ to become simply Manz AG. The company’s focus has been across a wider range of products and services than automation alone for most of its near 25-year operation period, and this name change aims to reflect that. Manz is now a supplier of integrated production systems and processing equipment for the PV industry.
German laser system supplier 4JET has won the Deutscher Gründerpreis Award 2011. The award, sponsored by Porsche, German magazine Stern, ZDF Television and the Sparkasse Banking Group, was presented to 4JET for not just its exceptional financial growth over the past 12 months but also for creating a business model that promises further growth in the years ahead.
TNO spin-off company, SoLayTec has sold the first four of its Al2O3 ultrafast ALD (atomic layer deposition) Process Development Tools (PDT) to separate customers that include imec, Fraunhofer ISE and two unidentified Asia-based solar cell manufacturers. SoLayTec said that the tools would be installed in the third and fourth quarter of 2011.
As the 37th IEEE Photovoltaics Specialist Conference (PVSC) gets underway in Seattle, Alta Devices plans to discuss how it achieved record cell efficiencies of 27.6% last year as well as its overall best efficiency rating of 28.2%. Both results were verified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory with Alta disclosing that the high efficiencies they reached were due in part to a new discovery involving the light emitted and collected by a solar cell.
The 37th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC) at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, Washington June 19 -24, is ready to welcome the cream of the PV crop. The final program was recently announced with presentations during the week focusing on 10 technical areas, including crystalline silicon technologies, organic PV and space technologies. Over 1,200 technical abstracts from around the world were submitted for consideration, marking a new record for IEEE PVSC.
Santa Clara University’s School of Engineering received a generous gift from an anonymous alumnus and his wife totaling US$1.3 million. The funding will go towards the launch of the Latimer Engineering Scholars Program, which beginning in the 2011 – 2012 academic year will sponsor teaching and research in the sustainable energy field.
Canadian Solar said its new ELPS solar cell technology can achieve up to 19.5% conversion efficiency for its monocrystalline cells and up to 18% for polycrystalline. During the fourth quarter, the high-efficiency cells are expected to be in production and modules incorporating them to ship, according to the company. These products and more will be among the firm's offerings at Intersolar Europe.
A period of equipment digestion or what's known as a reset could be at play after aggressive capacity expansions across the PV supply chain in 2010, according to the PV book-to-bill analysis featured in the forthcoming "Solarbuzz PV Equipment Quarterly" report. According to Finlay Colville, senior analyst at Solarbuzz, the PV book-to-bill is forecast to dip sharply below parity before rebounding in Q4’11.
The 26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) has released its program for the event taking place September 5 through September 9 at the Congress Center and International Fair in Hamburg. Conference General Chairman Dr. Heinz Ossenbrink and Technical Program Chairman Dr. Amulf Jäger-Waldau, both from the European Commission, DG Joint Research Center, helped the International Scientific Committee sort the 1,728 abstracts that applied to present at the conference. This year’s EU PVSEC will feature 82 sessions with 28 plenary, 326 oral and over 1,200 visual poster presentations.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) has found that by using the Rasirc Steamer efficiency in the production of back contact silicon solar cells reached 20.2%. Fraunhofer used the steamer system to provide ultrapure water vapor for its metal wrap through (MWT) and passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) solar cell manufacturing processes.
