Harnessing its R&D into both c-Si and a-Si thin-film technologies, Moser Baer Solar said that it would upgrade its solar cell processes using metal and intrinsic layer semiconductor technology (MIST) to achieve average cell conversion efficiencies of 21% and join the few cell producers at the top table above 20%.
Mage Solar revealed that it had opened a logistics centre in Dagenham, located near London, in order to better serve the British solar market. The company looks to the new site to deliver its PV system components to its installation partners at a more efficient speed. Mage Solar has had a sales team in the United Kingdom since the beginning of 2011 and noted that it continues to expand its network of installation partners.
UK-based organic thin film start-up, Eight19 has installed roll-to-roll printing equipment at its Cambridge, UK headquarters as a preliminary move towards volume production, as reported by PV-Tech’s sister-site, Solar Power Portal UK. Thought to be the largest of its kind in Europe, the bespoke facility includes a multi-station roll-to-roll fabrication machine which is designed to manufacture solar substrates. Eight19 expects to have the first of its commercial printed plastic solar modules available in 2013.
Struggling Dutch module manufacturer, Solland Solar said it was forced to drastically reduce its remaining operations after the successful sale of its solar cell production facility, due to tough market conditions. Both its commercial and module assembly operations are being curtailed, without providing details, affecting approximately 100 employees.
Verified by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Q-Cells said it had set new conversion efficiency records for multicrystalline and quasi-mono solar modules. A module with 60 multicrystalline solar cells, using its ‘Q.ANTUM’ cell concept was reported to have achieved 18.5% efficiency, up from a record Q-Cells claimed it had achieved of 18.1% last year. The market introduction of the Q.ANTUM solar cells and modules is planned for 2012 with pilot production at its advanced facility in Thalheim, Germany already underway.
Announced in conjunction with the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, cadmium-telluride (CdTe) thin film leader, First Solar has achieved a new total area efficiency record for its standard-sized modules of 14.4%. NREL was said to have confirmed the record, which was previously held by First Solar at 13.4%. Actual volume production of modules with efficiencies between 14.5-15%, are expected in 2015. First Solar reached volume production of modules with an efficiency of 11.7% in 2011.
The UK solar industry has finally received some good news this week, with the opening of a solar panel manufacturing facility in Jarrow, South Tyneside, creating more than 20 jobs.
India-based, thin-film PV manufacturer Moser Baer has installed a 5MW solar farm, equivalent to powering 70,000 households, covering an area of 60 acres in Tinwari, Jodhpur district, India. This is part of the US$1 billion the company has promised the Indian states of Gujarat, Orissa, West Bengal and Rajasthan, for projects worth 300MW. The farm was built under the solar subsidy scheme, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). The opening ceremony was attended by the renewable energy minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Ashok Gehlot, chief minister of Rajasthan.
The tragic death of Amonix CEO Brian Robertson late last year has led to Jan van Dokkum, an executive with venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, becoming interim CEO of the concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar systems company. The Board of Directors at Amonix said it had enlisted an executive search firm and has established a search committee for the selection and appointment of a new CEO.
As the Middle-East becomes an emerging solar market, more companies are set to seek business opportunities in the region. PV wholesaler and project developer, Antaris Solar is latest to announce it has opened trading posts in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar. Antaris Solar already operates in Italy, France, the United Kingdom and the USA.
