Taiwan-based solar cell producer Neo Solar Power (NSP) has posted its 10th consecutive month of increased revenue, reaching a new record high of approximately US$84.1 million (NT $2.44 billion) for January, which represented a 5.74% increase month-over-month, and 150.06% year-over-year. NSP has raised its capacity expansion target to 1.3GW in 2011, up from the 1.2GW previously guided.
Founder and President Emeritus of SunPower, Richard Swanson, has been selected as the recipient for the 2011 Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit. The honor comes with a cash award of US$50,000, which is funded by the Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit Trust. The Medal is given every two years to an individual that has made ground-breaking contributions towards the promotion of solar energy through research, development or economic enterprise or to an individual that has proven themselves with valuable and enduring contributions to the solar energy field.
Amtech Systems’ subsidiary, Tempress Systems, started the New Year off on a positive note, receiving US$32 million in new diffusion processing systems in January alone. The company notes that the orders were made by both new and existing Asia-based companies.
MRL Industries has a new name--Sandvik Thermal Process. The California-based diffusion and inline solar furnace manufacturer was bought by Sandvik in 1999, but had kept its own name until the rebranding. MRL will continue to be used as a trademark for certain items in the Sandvik product line.
Solar3D has revealed the details for its new solar cell and plans to have developed a working prototype by the end of 2011. The three-dimensional micro-photovoltaic cell is inspired by light management techniques used in fiber optic devices and Solar3D claim it has the potential to dramatically change the economics of solar energy.
The latest Solarbuzz ‘PV Equipment Quarterly Report’ highlights that the fourth quarter of 2010 saw a further 1.25GW of quarterly solar manufacturing capacity come online. According to the market research firm, annualized c-Si cell and thin-film module capacity increased by a further 11.5GW, in 2010. Equipment spending grew for the sixth consecutive quarter to reach US$2.9 billion in the fourth quarter. At the end of the year, 20 equipment suppliers to have order backlogs in excess of US$100 million, with the majority of these orders scheduled for shipment during the first half of 2011.
Amtech Systems has announced its preliminary results for Q1 of the new fiscal year, including record-breaking revenue and pre-sale figures. Q1, which ended on December 31, delivered revenue of US$52 million, bookings of approximately US$134 million, and an order backlog of US$172 million.
The Finnish cleantech company, Beneq, has newly received a combined €9 million investment from Finnish Industry Investment, Via Venture Partners and other private investors. Beneq is known as a supplier of production and research equipment for nano-scale thin-film coatings and developed the nAERO aerosol-assisted process. nAero is a deposition method that allows for production of low-haze and high-haze transparent conductive oxide (TCO) coatings for in-line and off-line coated products. The company is presently shifting from its piloting to industrial production phase.
Technic has appointed Wilson Xia as its Asia-Pacific technical director of photovoltaics. Xia’s new role will see him working on the research and development, applications engineering and distribution of the company’s TechniSol photovoltaic processing technologies.
NanoMarkets has published a new report claiming that novel encapsulation and substrate materials are the key to the long-term survival of organic photovoltaics (OPV) and dye-sensitized cell (DSC) photovoltaics. The report, titled 'Encapsulation and Flexible Substrates for Organic and Dye-Sensitized Photovoltaics', predicts that a US$1.3 billion encapsulation and substrate market will be possible by 2017, if manufacturers of these materials can offer products that will facilitate use of OPV and DSC technology into the building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) sector.
