Search Results for: supply chain – Page 207

Henning Wicht, iSuppli's senior director and principal analyst for photovoltaics market research, has become increasingly bearish on the photovoltaics industry due to the severe overcapacity throughout the supply chain. In a new report, Wicht projects that PV module production--which is still expanding--will reach a capacity of 7.5GW in 2009, however installations will only reach 3.9GW. This means that nearly half of all solar panels produced in 2009 will remain unsold and a massive inventory build will persist until 2012.

Efficient management of the PV supply chain can save a company money, both directly by reducing material and component cost, and indirectly by improving lead time, inventory optimization and quality throughout the entire value chain. So-called static supply chains compare poorly to their dynamic counterparts that see cost reduction and quality as well as material availability improvements. What follows is a proposal of improving the supply chain using methods like integration, data exchange and collaboration that can also help to improve entire E2E flows through re-structuring and outsourcing from one level to another.

XeroCoat has chosen Air Liquide Electronics U.S. to supply the precision chemical delivery systems for XeroCoat’s turnkey antireflective coating platform for glassmakers and end-users in the solar manufacturing industry.

Satcon will expand its global photovoltaic inverter and other manufacturing capacity to more than 600MW in 2009 between its production facilities in Burlington, Ontario, and Shenzhen, China, as well as partner with DB Schenker Logistics to provide global logistics and transportation services for Satcon's global supply chain needs.

Robert Lieberman has joined Spire Corp. as corporate controller, bringing more than 25 years of manufacturing and distribution experience to the role. As corporate controller, he will be shouldered with responsibility for Spire’s financial dealings, and working on improving existing processes and business efficiencies.

In a multi-year collaboration agreement, SunPower Corp. has committed to working with Jabil Circuit, Inc. on the manufacture of solar panels. Jabil will begin manufacturing solar panels in Mexico for North America’s solar market in the second half of 2009.

The SEMI PV Group, the special interest group that serves the photovoltaic supply chain, has made available a report on “China’s Solar Future,” prepared by the China PV Advisory Committee, organized by the PV Group, and comprising China PV industry and academic leaders. The report presents specific recommendations for a China PV policy roadmap; in particular, the need for an accelerated adoption of PV generated electric power in China.

After a slow start, this year’s PV Industry Forum, the traditional opening conference of Intersolar Week in Munich, finally got going during the last session of the day with a resounding call to action from none other than Q-Cells’ boss, Anton Milner. The conference opened with the usual slides and the usual suspects giving their views of the overall solar market. The obligatory emerging market was given lip service--this time it was India--while the rest of the presentations mostly failed to engage the audience in a meaningful way. Things changed during the afternoon....

Although there is an expected decline in the demand for advanced chemicals and materials used in PV solar cells and modules, Linx-AEI Consulting said in a new report that the market would return to growth in 2010 and reach a value of approximately $15 billion by 2015. PV chemicals and materials used for all types of technology will decline to US$2.3 billion in 2009, Linx-AEI Consulting said.

Recent rumours of a business tie-up between Q-Cells and LDK Solar have come to fruition with the official formation of a Joint Venture (JV) to promote and supply PV systems for large-scale solar power plants in both Europe and China. The new business partners said that a 40MW project located in Europe had already been secured, which will see the use of solar wafers from LDK Solar and solar cells from Q-Cells, though no details were given in respect to modules.