ersol Solar Energy AG has added a new member to its Board, which is currently made up of CEO Dr. Claus Beneking, CFO Ekhard von Dewitz and COO Jürgen Pressl. Joining this senior management is Peter Schneidewind (pictured), who was recently appointed Managing Director of ersol Thin Film GmbH.
BTU International, a maker of thermal processing equipment, has set up a dedicated business unit dubbed the ‘Alternative Energy Group’ to handle business expansion within the photovoltaic industry. As part of the move, the company is to establish two international research and process application laboratories—one in Billerica, Massachusetts and one in Shanghai, China.
Synova and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) have started a new research alliance that will see ISE utilize Synova’s Laser MicroJet (LMJ) technology with liquids other than pure water to evaluate the viability of the technology for wafering and micro-structuring applications on PV cells.
Yingli Green Energy has signed two polysilicon supply agreements with DC Chemical of Korea for the supply of polysilicon under two separate contracts. The first contract sees DC Chemical supply polysilicon with a value of approximately $27 million to Yingli Green Energy in 2008.
DayStar Technologies has enlisted the expertise of Ratson Morad (pictured) to head up its operations management. As COO, Mr. Morad will focus mainly on the company’s production facility and will report to CEO Stephen DeLuca. The company also announced the departure of Jack McCaffrey from the role of VP of Manufacturing, who has left to pursue other interests.
The Cluster for Application and Technology Research in Europe on NanoElectronics (CATRENE), a EUREKA programme, has announced its appointment of a new Chairman and Office Director. Following the recent resignation of Jozef Cornu, Enrico Villa takes up the role of Chairman, while Jacques Dulongpont has been named Office Director.
KLA-Tencor Corporation has made a friendly acquire all shares in ICOS Vision Systems for approximately $465.8 million. ICOS's primary business is inspection equipment for semiconductor packaging but has been successful in the more cost-conscious solar wafer inspection market at key processing steps.
According to just released worldwide photovoltaic production figures from Photon magazine, Q-Cells was the largest manufacturer of solar cells in 2007. This was based on the forecast production output of 370MWp, surpassing Sharp for the first time.
Market research firm Frost & Sullivan expects polysilicon supply to catch up with demand in 2008. It cites in a new report that the major suppliers are bringing more than 17,000 tonnes of new polysilicon capacity online in 2008, and while demand from PV manufacturers is set to continue, semiconductor manufacturing demand is only growing at single digit levels.
Tokyo Electron (TEL) has established a new business, Tokyo Electron PV Limited, with Sharp Corporation to develop and commercialize high throughput plasma CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) systems for the thin film silicon photovoltaics market based on TEL’s experience in the large flat panel display industry. According to TEL, it had undertaken a detailed field review of the PVindustry before deciding to enter the market.
