According to SolarWorld’s 186-page annual report for 2015, and a presentation by Dr. Holger Neuhaus, Managing Director, SolarWorld Innovations GmbH at the inaugural PV CellTech conference held in Malaysia last week, high-efficiency products will be the key focus of its expanded manufacturing capacity and technology migrations in 2016.
Former major PV equipment provider, GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has successfully emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy in the District of New Hampshire, US after seeking protection in October, 2014.
When Jan Marc Luchies from Tempress Systems (Amtech Systems) took to the stage last week – on the second day of the inaugural PVCellTech conference in Kuala Lumpur on 17 March 2016 – equipment supplier Amtech Systems capitalized on this platform with a press release to highlight a sharp uptick in new order intake for its PV operations over the past two months, taking the company’s solar bookings to approximately US$50 million since October 2015.
Solar PV and polysilicon manufacturing equipment specialist centrotherm said it has booked over €40 million in solar and semiconductor manufacturing equipment orders in the first two months of 2016.
The second day of our inaugural PV CellTech conference in Kuala Lumpur on 17 March 2016 turned out to be equally informative, engaging and thought-provoking as day one. Among the many takeaways from the two-day event in general, the final session addressed head-on one of the most hotly debated issues in the industry today – the technology roadmap!
PV manufacturing capacity expansions planned this year are expected to push production levels beyond anticipated demand in 2016, creating further cost pressures for suppliers.
Recent preliminary performance data from a small bifacial PV array in Germany suggest impressive yield gains compared to a conventional system. Joris Libal and Radovan Kopecek of ISC Konstanz take a closer look at what the results could signify about this emerging technology.