Coinciding with Sputnik Engineering presenting its the new megawatt station for the first time at EU PVSEC the inverter company has announced the commissioning of its first megawatt station in Hemau, in the district of Regensburg and installed by SolaStrom Systems.
ReneSola is increasing its capacity to offer PV OEM services and further its efforts to become a fully integrated PV manufacturer with the acquisition of China-based Dynamic Green Energy. The mainly share based transaction has been approved both companies' boards of directors. Jiawei Solarchina was a subsidiary of Dynamic Green Energy, which is currently partnering with Evergreen Solar on a 100MW plant in China. GE Capital Asia Pacific was also a major investor in Dynamic Green Energy.
Flexible CIGS photovoltaic module manufacturing start-up, Ascent Solar has announced a couple of multi-year supply agreements during the week of EU PVSEC, being held in Hamburg, Germany. The most significant would seem to be with TurtleEnergy, a New Jersey-based system integrator for up to 67MW over five year contract period. The second deal was with a consumer products company Goal Zero. Although no MW level was given in this deal, a total of 30,700 units through 2010.
A mechanically-stacked approach to GaAs/Ge multijunction solar cells that targets 40% conversion efficiencies have been unveiled by IMEC, during the EU PVSEC event being held in Hamburg this week. IMEC has succeeded in transferring a transparent GaAs top cell onto a Ge bottom cell that has a separate contact, creating a mechanical stack. IMEC, expects to show a first working triple-junction cell beginning of 2010.
PV power harvesting and monitoring solutions start-up, SolarEdge is rapidly adding new partnerships with the signing of a new agreement with solar systems firm, Isofotón. The two companies have been working behind the scenes to test an integrated power harvesting system that incorporates SolarEdge’s PowerBoxs (ASIC-equipped, smart junction boxes) with Isofotón’s 220 watt monocrystalline modules all pre-assembled by Isofotón. These are teamed with inverters designed by SolarEdge that are claimed to maximize power generation while reducing installation costs. The companies aim to increase energy output by up to 25%.
As part of its plans to build a thin-film CIGS (copper, indium, gallium and selenide) solar cell production line in Mudu, Suzhou China, GroupSat has placed an initial multi-million dollar purchase order with RENA for its complement of inline cleaning and inline CdS deposition systems. According to RENA, it expects a follow-on order after the first shipments are made during the fourth quarter of 2009. GroupSat wants to expand production capacity to 100MW by 2011.
The Italian photovoltaics market has just heated-up with news that SunPower is to supply solar modules, trackers and project management services at a 100MW power plant to built in Montalto di Castro, Italy with completion of a 24MW first phase expected by the end of the year. The project is planned to be a 100MW development that is expected to be fully operational in 2010. This would make the new solar power plant, easily the largest in Italy and a major project in Europe. The project is being financed by a consortium of both international and Italian banks, according to SunPower. The project is being built in collaboration with SunRay Renewable Energy, which will own the plant.
Bekaert Specialty Films a subsidiary of the Bekaert group and well known for its sputtering targets has entered the PV module backsheet lamination market with a new range of materials under its Solar Gard PV T series. Bekaert said that it has capacity to produce more than 4 million square meters per year (400MW) at its San Diego, U.S.A facility
IMEC has presented a large-area cell (125cm2) at the European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference that incorporates a shallow emitter and advanced front metallization using copper plating instead of silver, which has a conversion efficiency of 18.4%. IMEC plans to develop the technology to efficiencies above 20% and wafer thickness of 40µm.
DuPont and Applied Materials have teamed to boost the performance of c-Si solar cells. Applied is focusing on reduce the shadowing effect of wide grid lines on solar cells employing its Baccini ‘Esatto’ technology and customized formulations of DuPont’s ‘Solamet’ metallization paste.
