After a week in Taiwan, overlapping with the PV Taiwan exhibition and conference in Taipei last week, my main takeaway is the scale of new capacity that is confirmed to be coming online over the next 3-6 months, no matter what is happening today regarding supply levels and end-market demand. This and other conclusions from my week in Taiwan are covered in two blogs this week on PV-Tech.
In an unexpected development of the planned merger of Tesla and SolarCity, the electric car manufacturer has said that it had tentatively agreed with Japanese electronics firm, Panasonic to begin solar cell and module production at SolarCity’s Riverbend production plant in Buffalo, New York state in 2017.
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment specialist SoLayTec, a subsidiary of Amtech Systems has received a follow-on order for three solar cell ALD systems.
Integrated PV module manufacturer REC Group said total module shipments in the second quarter of 2016 reached 326MW, bringing first half year shipments to 640MW and a 4% quarter-on-quarter increase.
Leading PV manufacturing equipment supplier Meyer Burger Technology said it had been awarded new tool orders from two existing customers in Europe and Asia valued at CHF15 million (US$15.3 million).
3D-Micromac’s ‘microCELL’ TLS is a highly productive laser system for separation of standard silicon solar cells into half cells. The microCELL TLS meets cell manufacturers demands for retaining the mechanical strength of the cut cells.
Solar panel manufacturers that fail to keep up with emerging technology trends will be under tremendous pressure in 2017, according to host of their peers at SPI 2016.
US-based developer of ‘direct gas to wafer’ technology Crystal Solar has been awarded a US$3 million cooperative agreement by the U.S. Department of Energy, SunShot Initiative.
US-headquartered PV manufacturer Sunpreme is one of the recipients of the latest SunShot Initiative funding rounds that have just been announced through the U.S. Department of Energy. The copper patterning development funding is expected to lead to the company building a manufacturing plant in US.
The hardest and most ‘controversial’ aspect of analyzing capacity expansion announcements is converting them to actual or ‘effective’ new nameplate capacity.
