Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan was said by experts to be the largest to hit the country in over a century. A massive10-metre (33-foot) high tsunami battered coastal towns and cities across the northeast coast with Sendai, north of Tokyo affected the most by the disaster. As for the events' impact on the solar PV supply chain, initial reports indicate the effects have been minimal.
Akrion Systems has appointed Dr. Mehran Asdigha as its new vice president of engineering. Asdigha joins the surface preparation specialists from BlueShift Technologies where he was senior vice president of engineering.
Bridgestone is to add a new ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) production line to its factory in ?arów, Poland. An investment of US$58 million will be used to fund the installation, with manufacturing scheduled to begin during the first half of 2013.
Q-Cells SE is set to increase its presence within the U.K. solar industry by opening a new office in London. The exact opening date for the office has not been revealed but it is likely to take place before the end of Q2.
Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley is the new home for Helios USA’s new manufacturing facility, which officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony today. Helios, who states that they are the state’s first manufacturer of high-performance solar modules that can be used in residential, commercial, industrial and utility-based solar projects, is already manufacturing panels and shipping them across the U.S. from its new Wisconsin facility.
In accordance with the strategic cooperation agreement signed by JA Solar Holdings and the Hefei City Government, JA Solar will be constructing a 3GW integrated solar industry production base for the company’s solar cells in Hefei, the capital city of East China’s Anhui, Province.
Production capacity at DEGERenergie’s tracking system facility in Ontario, Canada is set to double in the first half of 2011. Last year’s output level has already been increased by 50% and the German firm expects to see production rise by a further 50% in the second quarter as it attempts to take advantage of a spate of recently-announced Canadian projects.
Juli New Energy, a subsidiary of the Juli Group, has selected Critical Manufacturing’s cmNavigo Solar Edition MES for implementation in its Baoding, China facility. The execution of the MES solution will be completed by Critical Manufacturing’s Chinese unit.
Last year saw the gases division of The Linde Group capitalise on the solar industry’s growth by securing supply contracts with over 25 new and pre-existing customers in the thin-film and crystalline silicon manufacturing sectors.
Manz Automation will break ground later this week on a new production, technology, and training facility in Suzhou, China. The factory will manufacture equipment for the photovoltaics, FPD, and PCB industries, with 50% devoted to solar tools, said company executives during a press conference held in conjunction with the SNEC trade show in Shanghai. The building will be finished by the end of this year, with production machinery installed early next year and the initial production ramp planned for February 2012.
