Just a few miles from First Solar’s manufacturing operations in Perrysburg, Ohio, CdTe thin-film start-up Willard & Kelsey Solar Group (also known as WK Solar) has purchased a module lamination system from Bürkle.
With the acquisition of US-based CdTe thin-film start-up PrimeStar now behind GE, the conglomerate is planning to expand its investments in PV with the building of a 400MW manufacturing plant, potentially bringing its total investment in the sector to over US$600 million.
Solar Frontier has signed a distribution contract with Italy’s DW Europe to help expand its CIS solar module marketing and sales base in southern Europe. The agreement will enable Solar Frontier to establish a comprehensive distribution network and presence within the burgeoning European solar sector.
This month’s international trade fair Society of Vacuum Coaters (SCV) will see Fraunhofer FEP launch its new transparent conducting oxide (TCO) layer. The titanium dioxide-based layer, which can be applied to PV glass layers, has similar conductivity and transparency to other indium-free materials, but also boasts greater resistance to chemicals and the ability to withstand temperatures up to 550°C.
OPEL Solar International, the joint venture between OPEL Solar and Ecotech Environmental Technology, has been awarded its first order, just over three months after its formation. The company will provide 5MW of its HCPV panels and dual axis trackers to one of China’s electric power companies. OPEL Solar International initially expected the order to be for 2MW, but looks at the doubled purchase order as a way for it to break into the HCPV market in East Asia. Deliveries should start in the second quarter of 2011 and be completed during 2012.
Belectric and Sun & Life are staking their claim in what they call the largest solar power plant in Saudi Arabia. The two companies are partnering on a 10MW PV carport system at Dhahran’s North Park offices of Saudi Aramco. The large-scale power plant will cover all of the 4,500 parking spaces and feed into the public grid by the end of this year.
A 1MW concentrator photovoltaic power plant built on six acres of land formerly reserved for baby pistachio trees has been activated and is providing electricity to the Southern California Edison regional grid in Central California. The site, which features SolFocus CPV systems, is located on the Nichols Farms property in Hanford. Sol Orchard developed the project, with Bechtel Power providing the engineering, procurement, and construction expertise.
Ascent Solar Technologies will be changing up its work strategy with a new CEO who will lead the company in the pursuit of a new market focus. Farhad Moghadam will be stepping down from Ascent Solar for the pursuit of other interests and opportunities with his position as CEO and president being filled by Ron Eller. Eller has been a board member at Ascent Solar for the past two years and has a 25-year background in technology executive management.
New Energy Technologies has entered a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the U. S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) for the advancement of New Energy’s SolarWindow technology.
Apparent success with the R&D stage of the joint development project between Tata Steel and Dyesol to commercialise dye solar cells onto steel sheeting is said to be moving to a pre-industrial phase. The £11m project, which received a £5 million technology grant from the Welsh Assembly in Wales, is due to be completed in June 2011.
