Founder and President Emeritus of SunPower, Richard Swanson, has been selected as the recipient for the 2011 Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit. The honor comes with a cash award of US$50,000, which is funded by the Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit Trust. The Medal is given every two years to an individual that has made ground-breaking contributions towards the promotion of solar energy through research, development or economic enterprise or to an individual that has proven themselves with valuable and enduring contributions to the solar energy field.
Amtech Systems’ subsidiary, Tempress Systems, started the New Year off on a positive note, receiving US$32 million in new diffusion processing systems in January alone. The company notes that the orders were made by both new and existing Asia-based companies.
Yissum Research Development, the Technology Transfer Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Vaxan Steel have signed a licensing and research agreement to develop silver nanoparticles and silver-coated copper nanoparticles for conductive inks.
Green Earth Energy and Technology has signed a contract with Ascent Solar to distribute its CIGS thin-film modules in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany.
MRL Industries has a new name--Sandvik Thermal Process. The California-based diffusion and inline solar furnace manufacturer was bought by Sandvik in 1999, but had kept its own name until the rebranding. MRL will continue to be used as a trademark for certain items in the Sandvik product line.
After examining its results for the past fiscal year, Schott Solar has decided to augment its global PV module production capacity to reach 800MW during 2011. To help facilitate its wafer capacity expansion, Schott has formed a joint venture with China-based Hareon Solar Technology. The first phase of the JV will add 300MW of Schott’s module manufacturing capacity to its existing 500MW capacity in place at its New Mexico and Czech Republic facilities.
Steed Technology recently completed the full acquisition of outstanding stock for Applied Technology Specialists (ATSI). Steed has confirmed that manufacturing of all products will remain in Northern California, while research and development will continue in Oklahoma. Both companies will now operate under the Steed name.
Princeton Power Systems (PPS) has opened its new Princeton, New Jersey facility, which will manufacture inverters and energy storage systems for the alternative energy divisions. In addition to housing PPS’s military-qualified variable speed drive product, the 10,000 square foot facility contains floors that are qualified for assembling 90” inverter cabinets. The new facility boasts various labs, including an inverter test lab, a printed circuit board lab and a variable speed drive test and assembly lab.
Solar Integrated Technologies and ContourGlobal have finished work on all four of the thin-film PV projects they agreed to build for Coca-Cola Hellenic (CCH). The 905kWP Marcianise, 1249kWp Nogara, 622kWp Oricola and 472 kWp Monticchio plants will generate around 3,330MWh of electricity per annum.
Parity Solar has enlisted the help of China National Building Materials (CNBM) to expand the production capacity of its existing PV module manufacturing facility in Zhenjiang, China.
