Conergy SolarModule GmbH & Co. KG has named Mathias Kamolz as Managing Director of its Frankfurt (Oder) production site. Effective immediately, the new role managing the Oder plant will see Mr. Kamolz apply his semiconductor-related experience to building the business of the new solar factory.
LDK Solar has signed a five-year solar wafer supply agreement with China-based Jiangxi Solar PV Corporation (JSPV), a venture created by Solar PV Corp. The agreement will see LDK provide approximately 70MW of multicrystalline solar wafers to JSPV from 2009 to 2013, with JSPV paying an upfront advance payment of a portion of the overall agreement cost to LDK Solar.
Brian Jacolick (pictured), former Vice President of sales for SunEdison, has been promoted to General Manager for the North America region and in this role will oversee operations for the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean. Mr. Jacolick will be based in Beltsville, Maryland, and will report directly to CEO Tom Rainwater.
Continuing its strategy to leverage semiconductor and related technologies to the photovoltaics industry, IBM has said that IBM Research is targeting 15 percent plus conversion efficiencies for CIGS solar cell modules. Current CIGS thin-film cells achieve efficiencies in the range of 8 to 12 percent.
Polysilicon and multicrystalline wafer manufacturing start-up, Prime Solar, headquartered in Perth, Australia has selected CDI Corp to undertake detailed engineering design work for the construction of a polysilicon manufacturing facility near Leipzig, Germany. The contract was signed with CDI Engineering Solutions, a division of CDI Corp.
Dr. Stephen R. Forrest (pictured) has been added to the Applied Materials Board of Directors and also to the Strategic Committee of the Board. An expert in the fields of optoelectronics and organic compounds, Dr. Forrest is a well-known lecturer, fellow of IEEE and recipient of many awards for his inventions and innovations.
During the Intersolar exhibition held last week in Munich, Germany, SCHOTT Solar announced plans to accelerate the capacity targets of its parabolic trough technology (Concentrated Solar Power) by the end of 2009 to approximately 1GW, and also announced a target of 1GW of annual capacity for PV production by 2012.
SOLON S.p.A. has concluded a framework agreement with Deutsche Bank that will see the construction of turnkey solar power plants with a total capacity of 150MWp in Italy. The agreement between the Italian subsidiary of Solon AG and Deutsche Bank will run from 2008 to 2010, with the majority of the solar parks to be located in the south of Italy.
With plans to boost its sales into the photovoltaic market to over $1 billion in sales in the next five years from approximately $300 million currently, DuPont has said that it will more than double its production capacity of thick-film metallization pastes at its Electronic Materials DuPont Dongguan Ltd. (EMDD) facility in China.
The new polycrystalline photovoltaic module that boasts a claimed efficiency rate of 14.4% is due to be launched on June 18th by Sharp Corp. The company claims that the product’s structural differences mean that they are capable of the highest solar-to-electric conversion rate in the industry. The new module has an installation capacity up to 1.5-2 times greater than other modules due to better wind pressure resistance.
