Manufacturing

A potential shift by Chinese PV manufacturers to avoid anti-dumping duties in the US and EU as well as in India has started with plans by Hareon Solar to build a 300MW solar cell plant in Taiwan.

Taiwan-based research firm, EnergyTrend, has said that Taiwan-based solar cell producers shipped 3.2GW of cells in the first half of 2013 on the back of anti-dumping duties against China in the US and EU.

CIS thin-film manufacturer, Solar Frontier, is touting a new lightweight PV module for the residential rooftop market, primarily in Japan.

A deal that would see Conergy’s sales operations sold and split from its PV module and mounting systems manufacturing operations has been signed between US-based financial investor, Kawa Capital Management, Conergy and the preliminary insolvency administrator of Conergy.

Inline measurement systems start-up, ACT Aurora Control Technologies said it had entered into a new evaluation agreement for its Decima tool.

Start-up, Solar3D, has claimed the use of an unspecified “thinner” silicon wafer substrate in prototyping its technology has achieved improved cell efficiency of 10% above its 25% cell efficiency claimed in 2012. The results have not been verified by a third party.

Thin-film manufacturer SoloPower has announced it is looking for new investors as its restructuring process continues.

The SCHMID Group has delivered its first TinPad system for volume production to an unidentified customer.

Taiwan-based TSMC Solar has pushed its CIGS thin-film module efficiency to 15.7%, up from 15.1%, only four months ago.

Energy company E.ON’s solar subsidiary, E.ON Climate and Renewables (EC&R), has completed its US first projects, in Arizona.