ersol Solar Energy AG has signed a long-term agreement with aleo solar AG to supply the module producer with crystalline silicon solar cells for a 12-year period, beginning in 2008. The contract volume of the agreement is approximately 250MWp and is expected to cost in the region of $3 billion.
Greentech Media, Inc. has announced the completion of a Series B Round of financing, raising $2.75million, and the subsequent appointment of a senior analyst to drive the company’s corporate growth. Michael Kanellos, well known in the industry for his role as CNET Green Technology Editor, brings experience in producing and analysing content to his new role as Senior Analyst for the company.
Applied Materials has launched a program that supports customers of its PV thin-film ‘SunFab’ turnkey production line with specific guarantees in respect to ramp, efficiency optimization and productivity as well as enabling continuous cost reductions based on megawatt output. Applied said that it has also signed a multiyear agreement for the service with T-Solar Global S.A. of Spain.
Technology development partners Sunovia Energy Technologies and EPIR Technologies have claimed a breakthrough in growing single crystalline CdTe/Si more rapidly in a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) tool that could lead to the faster commercialization of their proprietary solar cell technology.
Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. has signed an agreement with Hanau Energies SAS to supply a 4.5MW building integrated PV system (BIPV) to a farm located in Alsace, France. The 4.5MW installation is anticipated to be completed by January 2009 with an additional 1MW already being planned.
Vertically integrated solar cell manufacturer Solar Power Industries has placed a second long-term order for solar grade silicon with Becancour Silicon, which sees the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania producer receive an additional 3,000 metric tons per year from 2010 to 2015. The initial supply agreement anticipated shipments of solar grade silicon in excess of 4,000 metric tons over its initial period of 5 years.
Sheldon Reinhart, former CFO for Strategy First, Inc. has been appointed CFO and COO of ICP Solar Technologies, Inc. Bringing over 20 years of finance and technology experience to the role, Mr. Reinhart will oversee the company’s financial affairs and global operations in the role that was vacated by Leon Assayag in early May, who left the company to pursue other opportunities.
An Ernst & Young report based on data from Dow Jones VentureOne noted that investments by U.S.-based venture capitalists in the solar energy sector reached $132.4 million in 1Q08, a 136 percent increase over the same period in 2007.
Global solar technology giant SMA Technologie AG, the parent company of SMA America, Inc., has broken ground on an 82,000-square-foot solar inverter manufacturing plant in Kassel, Germany. The new facility is designed to triple SMA’s current production capacity to meet the global demand for its solar inverters.
GT Solar has received an initial order worth $8.8 million from new silicon solar wafer producer, Nexolon Co., Ltd. of South Korea. Formed in 2007, Nexolon is currently building its first manufacturing plant in the Iksan Industrial Complex in Iksan City of JeonBuk Province, South Korea. Nexolon has ordered multiple DSS450 furnaces from GT Solar that will be used for multicrystalline silicon ingot production.
