High-tech equipment manufacturer Intevac has said it is experiencing some further interest from solar cell producers in Asia that have booked several new tool orders recently.
US-Based ‘Direct Wafer’ producer, 1366 Technologies has reported a champion cell that has achieved a cell conversion efficiency of 19.1%, verified by Fraunhofer ISE.
Teams from solar cell research institute Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and the university École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland have combined a silicon heterojunction solar cell with a perovskite solar cell monolithically into a tandem device and reached a record efficiency of 18%, with potential to hit 30% after further modifications.
A heterojunction c-Si solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 25.1% has been showcased by its maker at an event hosted by the Japanese government to exhibit technological innovations in “new energy”.
PV laser technology equipment specialist InnoLas Solutions has received a major follow-on order for its ILS-TT high throughput laser machines for Passivated Emitter Rear Cell (PERC) technology.
Despatch Industries has introduced its patent-pending in-line ‘PowerLock’ LID (Light Induced Degradation) prevention technology that eliminates the need for material handling that can retrofitted into existing Despatch tools and will be offered on all ‘Safire’ firing furnaces.
Solar Frontier is not only targeting a widely reported reduction in costs around US$0.40 per watt within two years, but is also hoping to reach grid parity in Japan for residential PV systems with integrated battery storage in the next three to four years.
SolarCity is looking to hire as many new employees in just one day as it does on average every month, targeting the hire of 500 workers across 10 US states.
Super Solar Energy group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Thai utility Superblock PCL, will acquire five solar companies, according to a filing on the Thailand Stock Exchange.
Major PV metallisation paste producer Heraeus Photovoltaics has said its new manufacturing plant in Taiwan would be operational at the beginning of November 2015.
