UMG silicon hopeful Solarvalue AG has cancelled its upgraded metallurgical grade silicon (UMG-Si) supply contract with Moser Baer Group. Their UMG-Si method was to be expanded into full-scale UMG production at its Slovenian manufacturing site, but Solarvalue has not been able to achieve required purity levels in laboratory tests. In addition, UMG and polysilicon prices have declined substantially, making current production processes economically unrealistic.
Although there was a mild rebound in cleantech venture capital investments in the second quarter of 2009, reaching US$1.2 billion in 85 deals, compared to US$836 million in 59 deals in the previous quarter, the latest quarterly report from Greentech Media shows that VC funding in the solar sector has declined for the fourth successive quarter in a row. VC investment in solar was US$333.4 million in 17 deals, down from US$836.1 million invested in Q109 from 14 separate deals, approximately a 60% fall in funding.
A new program has been established by the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar to overcome the often lengthy (more than two years) and not always successful applications to use public land in desert regions, which include Nevada, Arizona, and parts of California. Key aspects of the program include ‘prime zones,’ new permitting offices to speed up permitting and the funding of environmental studies in the designated areas.
With plans to achieve 12% conversion efficiencies and ramp a new 90MWp thin film plant next year, Q-Cells SE has decided to increase its share ownership in copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) start-up Solibro GmbH. Q-Cells said that it would increase its share from 67.5% to 100%, issuing new Q-Cells shares to pay for the transaction. Solibro will then become a wholly owned subsidiary.
Sumco Phoenix Corporation is to close its silicon wafer manufacturing plant in Maineville, Ohio, USA due to the weaker than expected demand and semiconductor industry’s move to larger wafer sizes. The Ohio plant also makes solar silicon ingots, which will also be affected by the closure. Consolidating its operations, Sumco said that production would shift to its other plants in the U.S. and overseas.
Often touted as the next thin-film technology to take on cadmium telluride thin-film leader First Solar, copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) technology is set to grow and the use of indium, a key absorber material, will grow even faster. In a new report from NanoMarkets entitled ‘Indium Markets for Photovoltaics’, indium consumption is expected to see a rise of 80% by 2016, equating to 228 metric tons (MT) in 2016, up from the 20MT consumed today. However, the market research firm is forecasting that CIGS PV cells would represent only 8% of PV megawatts in that time.
Taiwan based AU Optronics Corp is to make an initial US$125 million investment in Japanese polysilicon producer, M.Setek with the aim of gradually becoming the majority shareholder in the company as it makes a move to strengthen its position in the renewable energies market.
According to news reports from China and reported by JLM Pacific, a consortium that includes Best Solar, Enfinity NV and China Guangdong Nuclear (CGN) Energy Development Company, has won a contract to build a 10MW PV power plant in Dunhuang, Gansu province, China. The reports claim that the winning price bid was RMB 1.09/kWh.
The Indian Government is set to initiate a three-phase strategy to significantly increase the country’s adoption of solar energy, according to a detailed analysis and exclusive checks made by Barclays Capital Solar Analysts, Vishal Shah and his team. The program, which is part of India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change, also provides customs and excise duty exemptions on capital equipment and other critical materials to help build a sustainable infrastructure that includes between 2-3 dedicated PV industrial parks and polysilicon production plants to meet the targets of 20GW of solar generation capacity by 2020, 100GW by 2030 and 200GW by 2050.
NV Energy and American Capital Energy (ACE) announced a long-term power purchase agreement to divvy the sales of energy produced from 20MW (DC) solar power plant that to be constructed by mid-2010 near Searchlight, Nevada, 55 miles south of Las Vegas. Other terms of the power purchase agreement were not disclosed.
