Emcore announced that ATK had awarded it with a contract to supply its ZTJ triple-junction solar cells for use in the AMOS-6 commercial telecommunications satellite mission. The satellite has plans to be launched in early 2015 and will see Emcore’s products used to power the AMOS-6 spacecraft manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
In its newly released mergers and acquisition report for Q3 2012, Mercom Capital Group found that venture capital (VC) funding in the solar industry was at its lowest point since 2008 totaling only US$72 million in 14 deals, compared to US$376 million in 32 deals in Q2 2012.
Having entered the Japanese PV market in August, NexPower Technology has announced a 2MW order of its Xtreme+ Series modules for various projects in western Japan. The modules will be distributed via its Japanese distributor, Marubun Corporation. NexPower states that its Xtreme+ Series complies with Japanese JPEC standard as well as being both UL and CEC registered.
Already incorrectly type-cast by the mainstream media as the illegitimate love child of failed copper indium gallium di selenide (CIGS) thin-film manufacturer, Solyndra, flexible CIGS thin-film start-up SoloPower has officially opened its first volume production plant in Portland, Oregon. Unlike other CIGS start-ups, SoloPower uses proprietary roll-to-roll processes via electro-deposition processing as its differentiator.
Despite several start-up firm failures and an over-hyped sector, the concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) market is forecast to grow significantly over the next four years, according to the latest report from IMS Research, part of IHS. Though building from a small base, CPV installations are set to almost double in 2012 to around 90MW with a commercial value of US$325 million. By 2016 the market is expected to reach almost 1.2GW.
Armor Group, a French supplier of coated films for the thermal transfer printing industry, is stepping into the OPV solar cell manufacturing realm by investing €14 million (US$18 million) in a pilot OPV production line in La Chevrolière in western France, Les Echos revealed.
WAAREE Energies, an Indian PV manufacturer and project developer, has been on a roll in the past few months and has been awarded yet another turnkey EPC contract for a 5MW thin-film PV plant from Taxus Infrastructure & Power Projects Pvt. The location of the project has not been disclosed.
Boosting its presence in the South Korean markets for RF generation and monitoring systems for the solar photovoltaic, semiconductor, flat panel display and AMOLED industry sectors, MKS Instruments has acquired Plasmart, Inc, based in Daejeon, South Korea, in a cash transaction that wasn’t disclosed.
After several years of rapid price declines for conventional crystalline silicon solar modules, CIGS (copper indium gallium selenium) thin-film technology hasn’t been immune from the ‘solar shakout,’ despite its inherent capabilities to provide high conversion efficiency and low-cost production. Solyndra, Odersun, Soltecture, Global Solar Energy, Solibro and MiaSolé are companies that pioneered CIGS adoption but have either failed or now seek new partners to continue operations.
With a debt of ¥1.25 trillion (US$16 billion), Japanese electronics manufacturer Sharp Corporation has been feeling the weight on its shoulders and will submit an asset report to its banks next month in order to identify any flagging businesses it could sell to raise some finance, Reuters revealed.