€100 million have been invested into Solar21, the Irish renewable energy fund, for PV solar farms across Europe, focussing on economies with the most attractive long-term guaranteed FiT rates.
PVA TePla, a manufacturer of crystallization systems for semiconductor and solar silicon as well as vacuum and high-temperature systems, generated sales revenues of €77.3 million in the first nine months of 2011 (previous year: €95.0 million). With a margin of 9.8% (previous year: 10.3%), operating profit (EBIT) totalled €7.6 million (previous year: €9.7 million).
Concern is growing amongst the 800 employees of silicon wafer manufacturer Silico Solar which will be closing the 300MW facility in Puertollano at the end of this month until at least February 2012. Silico has blamed this on the adverse PV market conditions.
Two years in the making, Arizona’s largest commercial-scale solar power project has been completed. Located in Pinal County, the 20MW project sits on 144 acres and began operation earlier this year. Iberdrola Renewables will own and operate the facility with Salt River Project (SRP) purchasing the entire output of the plant under a 25 year agreement.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are evaluating the feasibility of developing renewable energy production on Superfund, brownfields and former landfill or mining sites.
After eleven years of research and development, Sharp Corporation has achieved the world’s highest solar cell conversion efficiency of 36.9% using a triple-junction compound solar cell in which the solar cell has a stacked three-layer structure. Measurement of this value, which sets a new record for the world’s highest non-concentrating conversion efficiency, was confirmed at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST).
China Sunergy and REC Wafer have spent the last few years to-ing and fro-ing between courts in Norway and China in the hope of reaching a settlement over the termination of a supply contract by REC Wafer.
SunPower’s latest endeavours in California includes partnering with Orchard Supply Hardware, a chain of 89 hardware and garden retail stores located throughout the state, in order to reach a wider audience through information displays and at www.OSH.com.
German manufacturer Singulus Technologies has received an order for its Singular PECVD tool, a coating tool for the application of ARCs on crystalline silicon solar cells, from the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS). The SINGULAR is part of a multi-million dollar project headed by SERIS focusing on silicon wafer heterojunction solar cells and their mass production.
