JA Solar's R&D team has developed and revealed its new high-power multicrystalline solar cell that is claimed to sport a conversion efficiency of 18.2%. Using its new “Maple” technology, the company states that its Maple cells feature silicon crystals that are broader, flatter and have less grain boundaries than traditional multicrystalline silicon. This new technology is said to allow for less energy waste and better conversion efficiency.
Arizona Public Service (APS) is expanding upon its AZ Sun program with the development of a new 17MW PV facility in Gila Bend, Arizona. With the Paloma Solar Plant, APS’s AZ Sun program will have committed 83MW of solar capacity out of the 100MW it aims to finance and own upon the program’s completion, which is intended for sometime in 2014. First Solar was contracted by APS to design and build the Paloma Solar Plant and expects to have it online by September.
Rumours of a tie-up with Samsung have proved true, with the news that MEMC will establish a new joint-venture firm with Samsung Fine Chemicals to produce polysilicon for the PV industry. The agreement between SFC and MEMC's affiliate, MEMC Singapore, includes building a 10,000MT plant in Ulsan, Korea, close to an SFC chemical plant. Production ramp is targeted for 2013.
CPV cell developer Cyrium Technologies has opened its new office in Hong Kong, China and appointed Nelson Fan as its general manager for Asian operations. Fan holds eighteen years of experience in the semiconductor industry, having most recently worked with Traxon Technologies as its research and development director. In his new position with Cyrium Technologies, Fan will be charged with concentrating on the company’s supply chain while detecting technology options and supporting their Chinese and other Asian customers.
Showa Shell Sekiyu subsidiary Solar Frontier has begun the commercial ramp of its new advanced, fully-automated CIS (copper, indium and selenium) thin-film solar module production plant, located in Miyazaki, Japan. Initial production capacity is claimed to be 600MW and is planned to reach a nameplate capacity of 1GW in 2012.
Germany’s PV manufacturing solutions provider Schiller Automation has created a U.S.-based subsidiary, Schiller LLC, to help it service its expanding portfolio of international clients.
Dutch research organisation TNO spin-off company SoLayTec has received an investment from Rena and Brabant Development Agency (BOM) to bring its atomic layer deposition (ALD) technology for volume manufacturing of c-Si solar cells to commercialization. Financial details were not disclosed.
BTU International has signed a worldwide licensing agreement to use DuPont Packaging Graphics’ catalytic oxidation technology. Developed to block volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the technology can be used in tandem with BTU’s Tritan metallization firing systems and is expected to lower the cost per watt of solar cells.
Southern California Edison (SCE) has signed a power purchase agreement with First Solar for its 250MW (AC) Silver State South plant. First Solar’s ground-mounted system, which will be located on 2,500 acres of public land near Primm, Nevada, will start generating electricity in 2014 and be fully operational in May 2017.
A select group of Q-Cells employees will be presented with certificates for solar cell production monitoring by the German Minister of Finance, Dr. Reiner Haseloff, today after attending a training seminar organised by IHK Bildungszentrum Halle-Dessau.
