The European Commission has awarded Sovello AG €15.5 million of regional investment aid to help build its latest String Ribbon solar-module production facility in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Germany. When completed, the entire project will have received investment totalling €147 million and created 320 jobs in the region.
Meyer Burger Technology has had an impressive few weeks scoring two big orders and has added a third order from a customer in Asia. The US$57.1 million (CHF55 million) deal will see MB Wafertec, a division of Meyer Burger, supply slicing, bricking and automated gluing systems while wafer inspection systems will be delivered by Hennecke Systems. Delivery is scheduled for 2011.
With an efficiency gain of nearly 1% in just six months, SoloPower has had certified a new, wider flexible CIGS module that is capable of producing up to 260Wp and has 12.1% aperture efficiency, as measured by NREL. The SFX3 module is claimed to be the most powerful flexible CIGS module currently in production. SoloPower says it has the first and only flexible CIGS products certified to both UL 1703 and IEC (61646 and 61730) standards.
Dow Electronic Materials broke ground on its new Eastern China manufacturing facility, located at the company’s Zhangjiagang site in JiangSu Province, approximately 98 kilometers from Shanghai. City government officials and employees took part in the groundbreaking event.
DuPont Apollo, a subsidiary of DuPont, and China Everbright International have put the finishing touches on a 1.3MW rooftop PV installation at DuPont Apollo’s Shenzhen, China, production facility. The two companies assert that this is the largest single structure thin-film PV rooftop installation in China.
Unidym, a subsidiary of Arrowhead Research, and Samsung Electronics have joined forces for an IP cooperation and license agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Unidym licenses Samsung patents for CNT materials, including fundamental patents on CNT compositions of matter, synthesis of CNTs, processing CNTs, ink formulations, and transparent conductive films.
Currently, the Vénissieux, France location that Bosch Solar Energy plans to set up as a PV module assembly plant is being used as diesel system location where common-rail injection pumps are manufactured. As the demand for such products has declined, Bosch began looking for a new use of the location and eventually, the company decided to bring their assembly plant to the locale.
