Manufacturing

In collaboration with the SUNY NanoCollege and U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium, flexible CIGS thin-film start-up, Magnolia Solar has claimed it has demonstrated a solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 13%. The company did not state aperture area dimensions.

PV inverter manufacturer KACO new energy has opened a sales and support office in Tokyo, Japan, to support its business growth in the country.

Chinese manufacturer Suntech has announced the resolution of its ongoing dispute with its partner GSF Capital.

The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has verified a new ‘dual junction’ thin film solar cell technology from Alta Devices with a conversion efficiency of 30.8%.

First Solar has said that it has contacted Abound Solar's trustees to begin discussions whether it can recover materials from up to 100,000 panels made by the bankrupt cadmium telluride (CdTe) module manufacturer.

The ‘solar winter endures’ at PV equipment supplier BTU International, opined Paul J. van der Wansem, BTU Chairman and CEO, in a conference call that garnered no financial analyst questions.

Record quarterly revenue and new record cell efficiency were overshadowed by First Solar delaying 2013 financial guidance until early Q2 2013.

New R&D test cells produced at First Solar’s Perrysburg, Ohio factory and R&D centre have reached a new record cell conversion efficiency of 18.7%. The record was verified by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and announced by First Solar yesterday.

Highly-respected within the semiconductor financial analyst community from his years at Varian Semiconductor, Bob Halliday has been quickly appointed as Applied Materials replacement Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

Rear-side passivated solar cells from Taiwan-based Sunrise Global Solar Energy Corporation have been verified by Fraunhofer ISE with conversion efficiencies of 20.3%.