Manufacturing

A new working group has been formed in Germany to support organic PV (OPV) firms and research institutes developing the thin-film technology.

Having dropped organic solar cells (OPV) that used fullerenes as the acceptor materials, imec has reported in ‘Nature Communications’ that it has produced a fullerene-free OPV cell with a record conversion efficiency of 8.4% and a 156cm2 module with a conversion efficiency of 5.3%.

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) announced its support for new legislation presented in the Massachusetts State Senate and House of Representatives that would permit public and private distributed generation (DG) projects to continue, while also expanding the solar energy industry across the state.

GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has secured a major US$336 million polysilicon equipment and technology deal with Cosmos Chemicals Berhad as part of plans to build a 25,000MT integrated polysilicon plant in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Solar power production in California hit a new record on 8 March 2014, as output peaked at 4,093MW.

JA Solar’s PV module shipments are projected to grow at a strong 44% CAGR through 2015, according to ROTH Capital equity analyst, Philip Shen.

Indian PV manufacturer Indosolar has asked to have its debt restructured because it says low equipment prices mean it is unable to make a profit.

Flexible CIGS thin-film firm, Ascent Solar surpassed US$1 million in annual revenue for the second time since it started operations in 2005.

Wuxi Suntech is currently upgrading cell and module production lines in China ahead of plans to increase in-house module capacity in 2014, according to its recently appointed CEO, Eric Luo.

Guam is finally beginning its first foray into the renewable energy sector, as NRG Solar and Boeing announced that construction had begun on Dandan, a 25MW solar power plant.