South Korea’s biggest chemicals manufacturer, LG Chem, is planning to spend ? 491 billion (US$455 million) on its first polysilicon plant as it looks to take its first step into the PV industry. The facility, located in Yeosu in southwest Korea, will have the capacity to produce 5,000 metric tonnes of polysilicon per year. LG Chem’s board approved the construction plan on Thursday and it has penciled in a completion date of late 2013.
Despite a swathe of competitors experiencing a significant fall in demand for modules in the first quarter, Canadian Solar would seem to have bucked the trend and guided robust sales in the second quarter resulting in sell-out shipments during its recent first quarter analyst call. In that call, Dr. Shawn Qu, Canadian Solar’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer highlighted plans for a new 600MW solar wafer plant that would that would be run as a joint venture operation to reduce capital outlay.
GT Solar has shipped 1,000 DSS multicrystalline ingot growth furnaces in seven months having announced a new milestone of its 3,000th DSS system being shipped to customer, Gigastorage in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It was only in early November, 2010 that GT Solar announced it had reached a new milestone of its 2,000th DSS system shipment, then to another Taiwan-based PV producer, Green Energy Technology (GET).
GT Solar International has received orders for its DSS multicrystalline growth furnaces totaling US$84.3 million. Orders were place by both existing and new customers including Nantong Zongyi New Material and Inner Mongolia Zhong Huan Solar Material. The orders will be included in GT’s backlog for the quarter, which ends on July 2.
GT Solar has improved productivity on its latest-generation multicrystalline ingot growth system. The process on the DSS650, which produces ingots >625kg, has been enhanced by 44% over the earlier generation DSS450 tool, as a result of reduced cycle time, while maintaining high crystal quality and mass ingot yield, according to the company.
Daqo New Energy’s first quarter 2011 financials show the company increasing their revenues, income and polysilicon shipments over 2010’s fourth quarter results, but the company still holds a conservative outlook for its second quarter 2011. Revenues for Q1 amounted to US$87.3 million, a 6.6% increase over Q4 2010. The company acknowledges that its revenue growth can be credited to an escalation in its polysilicon sales, which amounted to 1,089MT during Q1.
Natcore Technology scientists working at Ohio State University have continued to make progress on the development of the company's liquid-phase deposition (LPD) process, demonstrating how it can be used to apply an antireflective coating to textured solar cells as well as standard planar cells. The company said this could help open the door for the industry to achieve even further wafer thickness reductions by eliminating the thermal vacuum AR coating process.
Later this year, DuPont Microcircuit Materials (MCM) is expecting to commercially launch a new version of its Solamet brand of PV metallization pastes that are claimed to significantly reduce the silver (Ag) content. MCM plans a new product that will reduce the silver content by 10%, having accelerated development efforts that should at a later time see a 20% reduction in silver content, all designed to be near drop-in replacements for current products.
Dow Corning veteran Robert Hansen, current company president, has been elected as the company’s new CEO, effective immediately. Hansen has been with Dow Corning for 29 years and was appointed as president of the company in November 2010. Dow Corning noted that Hansen will continue to serve as president, in addition to his role as CEO and that Stephanie Burns will remain chairman of the board of directors. “As chairman, I will remain deeply engaged providing counsel and advice on the company’s business strategy, as well as support to Bob as he transitions into his new role and I prepare for retirement,” remarked Burns.
Having originally announced plans to produce EVA encapsulants in China that would come on stream by June 2011, Solutia has said that its new manufacturing facility in Suzhou was ready to supply commercial-grade Vistasolar EVA encapsulant. This is Solutia's first new EVA production facility to be developed after the acquisition of Etimex Solar GmbH of Germany.
