Thin-Film

First Solar said it had started construction of a 22MW PV power plant in Pecos County, Texas.

Chinese state-owned PV manufacturer, CECEP Solar Energy Technology has used upgrades for Applied Materials ‘Baccini Esatto’ screen printers to produce average multicrystalline solar cell conversion efficiencies of 18.32%.

Hanergy Group has secured financing from several Chinese banks totalling around 20 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion), according to reports, as it looks to become a major PVEP (PV Energy Provider) employing a-Si and CIGS thin-film technology for downstream PV power plants.

A collaborative development programne (CDP) between First Solar and Intermolecular that was established in 2012 to target higher efficiency CdTe thin-film modules has been amended.

Japanese thin-film PV manufacturer Solar Frontier is to build its fourth CIGS module assembly plant in Japan with a nameplate capacity of 150MW.

Having acquired amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin-film equipment supplier Oerlikon Solar for over US$280 million in 2012, Tokyo Electron (TEL) has made an impairment charge on the operations of around US$214 million, revaluing the operations at around US$71 million.

Hanergy subsidiary, Solibro, has made a significant step forward in its sub-module (5x5cm2) lab produced copper-indium-gallium-selenium (CIGS) thin-film process with a verified conversion efficiency of 19.6%.

CIGS thin-film specialist, Solarion has started production of a foil-backed flexible thin-film module with ratings of between 65 and 80 Watt.

Photon Energy Investments (PEI), a division of PV solutions and services company Photon Energy has launched a standardised financing model through its fully-owned subsidiary, Photon Energy Generation Australia (PEGA).

Hanergy Solar is set to receive significant investment from its parent company as it prepares to ramp up its thin-film production capacity.