A subsidiary of MX Group, Solarday has gone into liquidation, according to a brief statement on its website. The company had opened it module assembly plant in Mezzago, Brianza, Italy in 2006 and had employed over 100 people, claiming it had achieved turnover in 2009 of over €60 million. MX Group had acquired a majority ownership of Solarday in 2011.
The research team at Helmholz-Zentrum, Berlin, Germany, published last month that Beneq produced positive results on the performance of its thin-film PV solar cells manufactured with TCO-glass (transparent conductive oxide). Produced by Beneq nAERO technology, the results show that nAERO-coated TCO glass is a definite candidate for cell manufacturers in need of high-quality fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) TCO glass at an affordable price.
Suniva revealed that its ARTisun Select series of solar cells are averaging 19% efficiency in plant-wide production. The new cell efficiencies are available to cell customers and have been incorporated into the company’s Optimus modules. Suniva additionally noted that it has refined the aesthetic specifications for the cells, including a narrower color band, which is said to have created a more cosmetically uniform module.
Eyelit has completed tallying its financial results for Q4 and the full year 2011. The company did not release specific numbers, but advised that it had completed a record high in Q4 revenue with new customer sales doubling in 2011, over numbers in 2010. Eyelit noted that 50% of its new customers are large multinational corporations with revenues topping US$1 billion.
Solar Frontier supplied approximately 29,400 CIS thin-film modules to a 3.8MW Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) installation in Burlington County, New Jersey. Mill Creek Solar Farm is part of PSE&G’s Solar 4 All scheme, aimed at adding 80MW solar electric generation capacity to the company’s capabilities by the end of 2012. Mill Creek Solar Farm was designed, developed and built by juwi solar.
Clenergy, PV mounting system manufacturer, has moved its European headquarters to Cologne. The offices were formerly located in Frankfurt but the company decided on the strategic move to Cologne in order to optimize logistics and human resource planning. The company’s European warehouse will also be relocated from Southern Germany to the new location in Cologne.
JinkoSolar Holding has opened new regional headquarters, for its Asia-based operations, in Singapore. The office will manage sales, logistics, financing, project development and customer service for the country. The company noted that with the opening of its new office in Singapore, it now has nine sales and marketing offices located on four continents.
French PV module manufacturer KDG Energy has begun the production of China Sunergy’s modules in France. The two companies have entered a memorandum of understanding in 2011, stating that China Sunergy (CSUN) will provide components for solar modules that KDG Energy will manufacture under CSUN’s brand name. KDG Energy officially commenced production of the modules in mid March 2011.
Air Products has completed and brought onstream its hydrogen selenide (H2Se) facility expansion at its electronic specialty materials manufacturing facility in Hometown, PA, USA. The newly expanded high-purity H2Se facility will serve the growing demand from the CIGS market for the compound, which is provided by Air Products to semiconductor and PV customers at more than 99.99% purity levels.
A recent report by market analysts Yole Développement has predicted that the PV equipment and materials markets will drive manufacturing cost reduction, leading to the purchase of in the region of 35GWp of new equipment by 2017. The report, “Crystalline Silicon PV: Technology, Equipment & Materials”, singles out the c-Si sector as facing a period of change whereby the low-efficiency portion of manufacturing capacity will be shut down in order to concentrate on the higher-yielding technologies.
