Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan was said by experts to be the largest to hit the country in over a century. A massive10-metre (33-foot) high tsunami battered coastal towns and cities across the northeast coast with Sendai, north of Tokyo affected the most by the disaster. As for the events' impact on the solar PV supply chain, initial reports indicate the effects have been minimal.
Delta Energy Systems’ inverter lines have been certified for compatibility with First Solar’s latest FS-Series 2 and FS-Series 3 thin-film modules. First Solar’s System Design and Application certification covers both Delta’s Solivia 2.5, 3.0, 3.3 and 5.0 EU G3 string inverters and its central inverter line.
Tenaska Solar Ventures has chosen Soitec’s Concentrix concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) technology to power its new 150MW Imperial Solar Energy Center (ISEC) West plant in Southern California, with local utility SDG&E agreeing to buy the power generated from the site under a 25-year PPA. The company also announced plans to build a 200MW capacity CPV module manufacturing facility in the San Diego area. The ISEC West project has applied for a DOE loan guarantee as well.
BTU International’s Shanghai, China manufacturing plant has shipped its 3000th thermal processing unit since its opening in February of 2004. During the seven years the plant has been in operation, it has gone through several modifications and expansions, including a 2008 addition of a solar application lab. The plant earned ISO 9001:2008 certification for its observance of high quality standards in 2009.
Akrion Systems has appointed Dr. Mehran Asdigha as its new vice president of engineering. Asdigha joins the surface preparation specialists from BlueShift Technologies where he was senior vice president of engineering.
Dr. Thomas Surek is known as a pioneer of terrestrial PV research who started his 37-year career with his growth of shaped silicon crystals at Harvard University in 1973. Recently, Surek has been appointed to Magnolia Solar’s technical advisory board (TAB) where he will be able to help the company further its promotion of PV systems as an alternative energy source. His experience in the field includes research at Mobil Tyco Solar Energy and a contributor to the large-scale commercialization of the edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) process through his shaped crystal growth of silicon.
Orbotech LT Solar has received the first order for its newly-developed anti-reflective wafer coating product. The beta site order is to be delivered in the second quarter of 2011 and follows on from the successful initial testing of the product.
Bridgestone is to add a new ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) production line to its factory in ?arów, Poland. An investment of US$58 million will be used to fund the installation, with manufacturing scheduled to begin during the first half of 2013.
Last month’s SNEC exhibition in Shanghai saw Manz Automation bring in new orders and letters of intent to the value of €25 million. The orders were for the company’s laser structuring and wet-chemical processing systems for thin-film modules, and its crystalline cell manufacturing machinery.
RF Micro Devices (RFMD) has engineered a dual-junction PV cell that combines gallium arsenide (GaAs) and indium gallium phosphide (InGaP) PV junctions with its customary six-inch semiconductor equipment. RFMD looks to this new development as a way to progress towards triple-junction structures and reach their definitive goal of creating a commercially feasible and high volume-capable compound semiconductor-based process for high-performance PV cells.
