A period of equipment digestion or what's known as a reset could be at play after aggressive capacity expansions across the PV supply chain in 2010, according to the PV book-to-bill analysis featured in the forthcoming "Solarbuzz PV Equipment Quarterly" report. According to Finlay Colville, senior analyst at Solarbuzz, the PV book-to-bill is forecast to dip sharply below parity before rebounding in Q4’11.
The 26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) has released its program for the event taking place September 5 through September 9 at the Congress Center and International Fair in Hamburg. Conference General Chairman Dr. Heinz Ossenbrink and Technical Program Chairman Dr. Amulf Jäger-Waldau, both from the European Commission, DG Joint Research Center, helped the International Scientific Committee sort the 1,728 abstracts that applied to present at the conference. This year’s EU PVSEC will feature 82 sessions with 28 plenary, 326 oral and over 1,200 visual poster presentations.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) has found that by using the Rasirc Steamer efficiency in the production of back contact silicon solar cells reached 20.2%. Fraunhofer used the steamer system to provide ultrapure water vapor for its metal wrap through (MWT) and passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) solar cell manufacturing processes.
Sales at Q-Cells fell by approximately 46% in the first quarter of 2011 to €125.1 million, compared to €232.3 million in the first quarter of 2010. The company cited a string of market issues that were responsible for the crash in sales, held higher by the sale of a utility-scale project in Strasskirchen, Germany, that provided proceeds of €72.5 million and the €20 million sale of electricity trading company QCCS at the end of 2010.
JA Solar Holdings’ financial results for its first quarter 2011 have revealed a profitable quarter that even surpassed some Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The company posted total revenue for the quarter of US$556.4 million, which, although shows a 5.5% sequential decrease from 2010’s fourth quarter results of US$588.9 million, still comes in 91.2% higher in a year-over-year comparison with 2010’s first quarter US$290.9 million result.
Natcore Technology scientists working at Ohio State University have continued to make progress on the development of the company's liquid-phase deposition (LPD) process, demonstrating how it can be used to apply an antireflective coating to textured solar cells as well as standard planar cells. The company said this could help open the door for the industry to achieve even further wafer thickness reductions by eliminating the thermal vacuum AR coating process.
Later this year, DuPont Microcircuit Materials (MCM) is expecting to commercially launch a new version of its Solamet brand of PV metallization pastes that are claimed to significantly reduce the silver (Ag) content. MCM plans a new product that will reduce the silver content by 10%, having accelerated development efforts that should at a later time see a 20% reduction in silver content, all designed to be near drop-in replacements for current products.
Ion implant market leader Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates will be acquired by Applied Materials for approximately US$4.9 billion. The deal is said to enhance Applied’s product offerings for transistor formation for front-end semiconductor processing as IC process complexity, transistor scaling and 3-D design implementation require complete and integrated product and process offerings. The deal also offers Applied new market opportunities in solar, display and light emitting diodes, where Varian has made significant investments in recent years to broaden implant technologies market opportunities. Varian reported last week second-quarter 2011 revenue of US$330 million.
A major Asian solar cell manufacturer has placed an order for multiple hydrogen annealing furnaces from BTU International after the customer experienced a significant increase in absolute cell efficiency using the technology especially on Class B cells during an evaluation period.
Solaria has officially unveiled its new manufacturing plant and solar array at the company headquarters in Fremont, California. The opening ceremony was attended by Lieutenant Governor of California Gavin Newsom, EPA Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld and several other state dignitaries.
