Ken Salazar receives SEIA’s prestigious Energy Champion award
January 29, 2010 | Comments Off
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has appointed Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar as its National Solar Energy Champion for 2009. Chosen for his leadership and dedication to the cause of encouraging clean energy infrastructure development with job creation as a chief concern, in the past year Mr. Salazar made the focus on renewable energy a top priority for the Interior Department.
ICP Solar, EPOD Solar enter into management shift agreement
January 29, 2010 | Comments Off
ICP Solar Technologies has signed an agreement with EPOD Solar, based in British Columbia, for a change in management. The agreement, which is effective immediately, states that Mike Matvieshen will take the position of chairman and CEO of ICP Solar, replacing Sass Peress who will remain president of the solar consumer goods subsidiary and as a board member.
SEMI welcomes Suntech CEO and Q-Cells COO to board of directors
January 29, 2010 | Comments Off
Zhengrong Shi, founder, chairman and CEO of Suntech Power, and Gerhard Rauter, COO and member of the executive board of Q-Cells, have agreed to join SEMI’s international board of directors.
Intel outside: Chipmaker moves to install more PV power systems, equipped with First Solar modules
January 29, 2010 | Comments Off
Intel likes to talk the green talk and walk it too with ever-smaller carbon footprints, buying copious amounts of renewable energy credits, investing millions of dollars in cleantech startups through its development fund, spinning off solar cell start-up Spectrawatt, and researching organic photovoltaics in its labs. The microprocessor mavens will soon increase their own direct use of solar energy, having recently announced plans for eight PV systems, collectively capable of generating about 2.5MW of electricity, to be built on several sites in the western United States. Some additional digging reveals a few new details about Intel’s latest PV projects, including the brand of modules to be deployed—First Solar.
SVTC updates progress with solar customer cell developments
January 29, 2010 | Comments Off
Independent development foundry, SVTC Technologies, based in San Jose, California has said that it has successfully completed solar cell design-to-commercialization milestones for five initial customers. In previous public announcements, Bloo Solar and JA Solar were said to be collaborating with SVTC as well as equipment supplier Roth & Rau. SVTC is well known in the semiconductor industry and branched out into the solar field in April, 2008. The new division is called SVTC Solar.
Tool Order: Coherent secures US$22 million in ‘Equinox’ solar equipment
January 29, 2010 | Comments Off
In announcing its financial results for its first fiscal quarter, laser photonics specialist, Coherent, highlighted that it has received approximately US$22 million in new purchase orders for its laser based tools for solar cell processing, during the quarter. The company said that its second quarter revenue guidance includes approximately US$8 million from the solar production systems order. Coherent guided second quarter revenue of between US$135 to US$140 million representing a 10% to 14% sequential increase from first quarter revenue of US$122.8 million.
German FiT cuts could now be delayed by one month
January 29, 2010 | Comments Off
It has been rumored on the wires that there will be yet another change to the German FiT plans. Reuters has now reported that the German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen wants to delay his proposed 15% cuts in solar subsidies by one month. This means that the proposed cuts will not go ahead until May 1 instead of April 1. Reuters claims that its government sources say that there are plans for further cuts after 2011 that could be steeper than Roettgen is now planning. This new proposal would include 3.5% additional subsidy cuts (on top of planned ~9% subsidy reduction) if the overall installations exceed 3.5GW. The current proposal calls for 2.5% additional subsidy cuts.
AU Optronics to invest US$540 million to expand polysilicon production at M.Setek
January 29, 2010 | Comments Off
In an effort to keep pace with other polysilicon producers capacity expansion plans, AU Optronics is to invest approximately US$540 million in further polysilicon capacity expansions at M.Setek. The monocrystal silicon wafer producer will construct a second wafer fab, which will boost capacity from 3,000 tons to 7,000 tons per annum.
Semprius, Siemens enter agreement for solar technology development
January 29, 2010 | Comments Off
Semprius and Siemens Industry have entered into a joint development agreement to co-develop plug-and-play demonstration systems based on Semprius’ solar module arrays and Siemens’ automation and control components. The systems will be installed at test sites around the world, including major utilities, commercial sites, international test locations and government facilities.
Applied Photovoltaics receives $1.1 million in tax credits
January 29, 2010 | Comments Off
BIPV module manufacturer, Applied Photovoltaics, will receive nearly US$1.1 Million in tax credits from the federal government.