Fab & Facilities

Columbus, Indiana is set to welcome a new kid in town found in the form of NuSun. The company is a solar panel manufacturer that prides itself in the building and assembling of U.S. made nanocoated crystalline-silicon PV panels. NuSun will be putting US$8.9 million towards the purchase and set-up of their new Indiana facility, which is slated to begin production in mid-2011.

IB Vogt and Sonthalia have renewed their partnership wherein IB Vogt will embark on a concept study and provide engineering services for a PV factory in Falta Solar Hub area of India. The PV factory is expected to be completed between 2011 and 2012 and is part of the Solar Mission that the Indian government approved for the generation of 20MW of solar power in India by 2022. The size of the contract has not been disclosed by either party.

Emcore and San’an Optoelectronics Company have come together for an investment and cooperation agreement with the Huainan municipal government. Under the agreement, Emcore and San’an will register and operate their joint venture (JV), Suncore Photovoltaics, in Huainan City for the production of CPV components and systems for terrestrial solar power applications.

The Greater Toronto area will be home to a new solar panel manufacturing facility courtesy of Eclipsall Energy. The company is investing over CAN$10 million for the 64MWp plant, which is anticipated to be operational during the first half of 2011. The need for expansion of the manufacturing line will be evaluated later in 2011.

MEMC is to join forces with Flextronics to produce PV panels to be used by SunEdison on a range of forthcoming projects. The MEMC-branded panels will be manufactured at Flextronics' production facility in Newmarket, Ontario, with work scheduled to begin during Q2 2011.

MiaSolé has begun the full use of Camstar’s SolarSuite enterprise software in its manufacturing line. The company advised that it looked to use Camstar’s software to help improve its solar operations and increase its product quality and reliability.

Pfeiffer Vacuum Technology has revealed its intention to acquire Alcatel-Lucent's Adixen vacuum technology unit, headquartered in Annecy, France. Negotiations on the purchase of the companies, patents and licenses belonging to this unit have been largely finalized with Pfeiffer Vacuum's supervisory board consenting to the acquisition on November 3.

An ambitious plan, which hasn’t been without implementation issues and which has stretched the financial structure of REC Group, is finally bearing fruit according to key executives of the company. At a lengthy investor and analyst seminar being held in Singapore, coinciding with the grand opening of the company's €1.3 billion plus integrated module production facility, enigmatic CEO Ole Enger claimed REC was on track to deliver a companywide all inclusive cost of €0.97/watt by the fourth quarter 2011. Excluding equipment and building depreciation at the new plant, the cash cost target for next year would be €0.74/watt.

Innotech Solar (ITS) has now begun constructing its new solar cell production site located in the Eastern German city of Halle, laying the first foundation stone on October 27. The facility is expected to initially create 80 new jobs in the region, with plans to increase the number of employees as the site progresses. Innotech Solar was assisted in the investment process by Germany Trade & Invest and the Investment and Marketing Corporation (IMG) Saxony-Anhalt.

SMA Solar Technology has founded a new sales and service subsidiary in Mumbai, India which is aims to open by the end of this year. SMA is currently the only inverter manufacturer offering modern system technology for grid-tied solar power plants in India.