Photovoltaic news and pv jobs

SoloPower opens US CIGS manufacturing facility

SoloPower has officially opened its new CIGS thin film photovoltaics manufacturing facility in Portland, Oregon. It is targeting 400 MW of annual capacity.

SoloPower employs a roll-to-roll electrodeposition process.

Solopower

The U.S.-based company, which received a U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantee worth US$197 million last February, says it expects to reach a manufacturing capacity of 400 MW and expand its workforce to 450. It has not provided any timelines for these goals, however.

Last January, the flexible CIGS manufacturer announced that it would build an around $340 million 300 MW facility in Wilsonville, Oregon. However, a month later, it said the facility would be 400 MW. It was then unveiled this March that it would be located in Portland.

SoloPower employs a roll-to-roll electrodeposition process, which it claims is low cost and can produce high-efficiency modules. In a report issued on CIGS manufacturers, Lux Research wrote that Solopower will have to produce "tangible results … to stay in the race."

No further details were immediately available on the new facility.