Recognising that the vast growth in solar deployment under the feed-in tariff (FiT) could lead to an accumulation of PV waste in landfills, Japan will soon begin implementing recycling rules for solar modules.
Thin-film is better suited to compete across all market segments with its conventional rivals than ever before, despite generally recording lower conversion efficiencies, Solar Frontier CEO Atsuhiko Hirano has said.
Major merchant solar cell producer Neo Solar Power (NSP) may be taking a cautious ‘wait-and-see’ approach to moving production outside Taiwan to circumvent US anti-dumping duties but its plan to launch a yieldco on the Hong Kong stock exchange reveals a more aggressive option to rekindle its business growth.
Leading thin-film PV manufacturer First Solar has surpassed multicrystalline module conversion efficiencies for the first time with its CdTe module efficiency reaching a record 18.6%.
Monocrystalline wafer producer Comtec Solar Systems Group said it had completed the qualification processes to supply two existing customers headquartered in the US and Japan from its Malaysian-based wafer production plant.
Thin-film manufacturing equipment specialist Hanergy Thin Film Power has cancelled a recent 900MW a-Si turnkey production plant with parent company, Hanergy Holding.
Germany-based PV materials manufacturer Heraeus has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Taiwan-based PV materials specialist Giga Solar Materials Corp for allegedly infringing a patent held by Heraeus over front-side metallisation paste materials used for solar cells.
Nano-electronics research center imec said it had achieved a record cell conversion efficiency of 22.5% for its large area (6-inch) n-type PERT (passivated emitter, rear totally diffused) Cz-Si solar cell.
