Thin-Film

The strategy to diversify its business away from dependence on sectors such as solar is proving to be a significant success for equipment supplier, Manz AG.

First Solar will start a 100MW manufacturing line for crystalline silicon cells for the residential distributed market from the end of next year with production scaling from 2015, it was revealed yesterday.

South Korean business conglomerate SK Group has invested a further US$19 million into Texas-based CIGS thin-film PV module manufacturer HelioVolt.

Leading PV energy provider (PVEP), First Solar, has claimed to be the first thin-film module manufacturer to have received ‘Thresher' test certification from TÜV Rheinland.

CIS thin-film manufacturer, Solar Frontier, is touting a new lightweight PV module for the residential rooftop market, primarily in Japan.

Thin-film manufacturer SoloPower has announced it is looking for new investors as its restructuring process continues.

Taiwan-based TSMC Solar has pushed its CIGS thin-film module efficiency to 15.7%, up from 15.1%, only four months ago.

With the aim of achieving 20% conversion efficiencies but with lower material costs, Solliance and imec have demonstrated a CZTSe (Cu2ZnSnSe4)-based thin-film solar cell (1x1cm2, AM1.5G) with 9.7% efficiency.

Having received an unspecified capital injection, CIGS thin-film start-up Solarion has successfully exited insolvency proceedings.

First Solar is to offer 8.5 million shares at US$46.00 per share potentially bringing in US$391 million of new capital to build PV power plants.