Calyxo has revealed that its CdTe cell technology has reached 16.2% efficiency, a figure that has been verified by Germany’s SGS testing body. The company uses its proprietary low-cost “hot and fast” atmospheric deposition process in the manufacture of its CdTe cells. Calyxo’s CTO Michael Bauer also expressed confidence in the technology’s potential to reach 17–18% cell efficiency and 14–15% top module efficiency by the end of the year.
Following reports on First Solar shutting down production in Germany, it has contracted German PV services provider Adler Solar to take over responsibility for European warranties.
Six years after the US Department of Energy (DOE) awarded Nanosolar a US$42 million Solar American Initiative (SAI) Technology Pathway Partnership (TPP) grant, the company has advised that all 10 major tasks have been achieved or surpassed. The grant was originally awarded in 2006 for the development of large-scale PV systems for commercial buildings that would offer the best price per watt performance in the industry.
Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) has announced that the auction date for the sale of United Solar Ovonics (USO) will be put back to 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) on May 8, 2012. The auction was previously set for 10:00 a.m. (Eastern Time) on April 24, 2012 following the company’s entry into Chapter 11 proceedings in the Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in February 2012.
Updated: A severe cost-cutting exercise and manufacturing realignment is underway at First Solar as it plans to axe around 30% of its workforce, permanently close its German manufacturing operations and idle four lines at its facilities in Malaysia. Management blamed the move on the market conditions in Europe and the rapidly changing market demand dynamics within the industry for the restructuring.
Big funding deals maybe a thing of the past but overall VC funding deals remain at record levels, according to the latest quarterly report of solar VC funding activity by Mercom Capital Group. Citing a slow start to 2012, VC funding in the first quarter of 2012 reached only US$329 million the lowest dollar amount recorded since Q4 2010. However, 34 deals were reported, suggesting VC’s are taking a lower risk approach to the sector, according to the report authors.
The research team at Helmholz-Zentrum, Berlin, Germany, published last month that Beneq produced positive results on the performance of its thin-film PV solar cells manufactured with TCO-glass (transparent conductive oxide). Produced by Beneq nAERO technology, the results show that nAERO-coated TCO glass is a definite candidate for cell manufacturers in need of high-quality fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) TCO glass at an affordable price.
Solar Frontier supplied approximately 29,400 CIS thin-film modules to a 3.8MW Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) installation in Burlington County, New Jersey. Mill Creek Solar Farm is part of PSE&G’s Solar 4 All scheme, aimed at adding 80MW solar electric generation capacity to the company’s capabilities by the end of 2012. Mill Creek Solar Farm was designed, developed and built by juwi solar.
Air Products has completed and brought onstream its hydrogen selenide (H2Se) facility expansion at its electronic specialty materials manufacturing facility in Hometown, PA, USA. The newly expanded high-purity H2Se facility will serve the growing demand from the CIGS market for the compound, which is provided by Air Products to semiconductor and PV customers at more than 99.99% purity levels.
AQT Solar advised that its Sunnyvale production facility had transitioned to a fully automated WIP management system, run by Sapphire Automation’s Emerald software platform. AQT noted that it had partnered with Sapphire in order to improve its equipment utilization and planning in order to ramp up its technology development and deployment cycles.
