German-based c-Si PV module manufacturer, Solar-Fabrik has said that its production lines are at full capacity as its struggles to meet demand for its modules after a successful marketing campaign in Europe and the U.S. promoting “made in Germany”. Solar-Fabrik has recruited a further 100 workers at its Freiburg facility and added additional shifts to meet demand.
Bureaucratic problems and administrative procedures had dogged solar installations in Greece in 2008 with only 11MW installed, up from 2MW in 2007, according to the EPIA. However, by July, 2009 a total of 29.8MW has been installed this year, according to the Center for Renewable Energy Sources in Greece and reported by Energia. The report noted that module price declines of approximately 35% had been a key catalyst for growth.
Wind turbine manufacturer A-Power Energy Generation Systems has acquired struggling a-Si thin film equipment manufacturer, Evatech Co for US$49.9 million. A-Power plans to move the Kyoto, Japan based equipment suppliers operations to China and produce thin film modules for the building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) market in China. The transaction is expected to close by the end of November 2009.
PV equipment supplier Roth & Rau has appointed Rainer Erdmann as Sales Director for Europe and Asia, replacing Thomas Hengst who was appointed a Management Board member in charge of sales in July of this year. The company is also extending its sales and service presence in India with new offices in Mumbai with additional service teams planned in Hyderabad, Delhi und Pune in the coming months.
Laser based equipment supplier, 4JET has said that it has received multiple new orders for edge deletion equipment used for thin film cell processing. The orders came from CIGS, a-Si and CdTe thin film manufacturers.
The race to higher conversion efficiencies in volume production for both monocrystalline and multicrystalline cells continues with news that Canadian Solar plans to boost cell performance to 18.5% and 16.8%, respectively. This will be accomplished by using several advances that include improvements in screen printing techniques, better texturization and a modified selective emitter process. The company said that these successful R&D projects will be migrated to production lines in the fourth quarter of 2009.
With a demonstrated and verified conversion efficiency of 18%, Innovalight has found a commercial partner in the form of JA Solar, which intends to use the ink technology and equipment required to enter volume production by the end of 2010. JA Solar said that is was already developing silicon ink-based high efficiency solar cells (on silicon) at its R&D pilot line in Yangzhou, China.
The fall-out from rapid price declines for polysilicon and wafers due to weak demand and increasing overcapacity in materials and production has taken a new twist with legal action being touted by both REC and China Sunergy over a long-term (2009-2015) take-or-pay mono-wafer supply contract. Many poly and wafer suppliers have been forced to lower contract prices and adjust shipment quantities as spot prices fall below contract prices, disadvantaging cell producers that are tied to take-or-pay contracts compared to those without such contracts.
Sharp Corporation is planning to make a big leap in a-Si thin film cell conversion efficiencies when it starts production at its nearly completed 1GW plant in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan.
Although the current weakness in demand has seen E-Ton unprofitable in the first-half of 2009, the solar cell manufacturer is said to be mulling plans for capacity expansions as demand from customers, notably in China and other parts of Asia has been improving. E-Ton shipped 30MW in Q109 and 50MW of solar cells in 2Q09, however the company is expecting shipments to increase to approximately 60MW in 3Q09.
