The US Department of Energy (DOE) is making a US$13 million investment in five separate projects designed to improve manufacturing competitiveness in the domestic solar industry.
Restructuring and cost-cutting efforts at PV equipment and technology specialist, Amtech Systems helped limit fourth quarter financial year losses to US$1.7 million, a highlight in what has been another difficult year for the company.
Manufacturer of PV screen printing equipment, DEK Solar, has been sold as part of a deal between the owner of DEK, Dover Corporation, and ASM Pacific Technology (ASMPT), itself a part of Dutch-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASM International.
Fraunhofer ISE said it had developed a low-cost rear contact Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact ‘TOPCon’ n-Type solar cell that has achieved a conversion efficiency of 24%.
R&D centre, imec has implemented a laser doping process to its i-PERC solar cell that pushes conversion efficiencies to 20.2%, while claiming lower processing costs that could result in faster commercial adoption.
PV equipment supplier, BTU International, has reported third quarter net sales of US$12.0 million, down 15.7% compared to US$14.2 million in the preceding quarter as little sales activity was generated from the PV sector.
Beleaguered PV equipment supplier, centrotherm photovoltaics, has given a cryptic account of deterioration in revenue expectations over the next two years, having recently reviewed its order backlog.
At Solar Power International 2013, 3M Renewable Energy is debuting its latest backside busbar tape, ‘4706’ which allows manufacturers to eliminate silver-based backside busbars, enabling cost savings and protecting against the volatility of silver prices.
AVACO, a specialist manufacturer of sputtering (PVD) vacuum deposition equipment and atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment, has announced the development of a new concept buffer layer deposition for photovoltaic cells.
