Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

Schiller Automation GmbH & Co. KG will supply automation equipment to an unnamed Chinese customer for a new 120 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic thin film factory.

How can the solar industry achieve, say, 200 gigawatts (GW) of annual installation by 2020? By using a lot of silicon and finding creative means to bring solar to the masses, according a panel of executives at Intersolar in San Francisco on Thursday.

The University of New South Wales (UNSW) has posted two world solar cell efficiency records in as many months raising the mark on a mass-produced, crystalline silicon solar cell to 19.4 percent.

A new record efficiency level has been set for Copper-Indium-Gallium-(di)selenide (CIGS) photovoltaic devices at 16.36 percent by California-based company XsunX.

Kaco new energy has opened a two gigawatt (GW) inverter manufacturing plant in London, Ontario. Over 100 jobs are expected to be created.

Under a new agreement, Helios Solar Works will manufacture and supply photovoltaic modules to Arista Power, which is currently expanding its solar presence.

3Sun, Italy’s largest solar module factory, has been inaugurated in Catania, Sicily. A new joint venture (JV) by its owners has now been formed to install 500 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic systems using the modules produced.

GT Solar International, Inc. has received new orders worth USD$81.7 million for its polysilicon production equipment.

Phase II of Gesolar’s workshop has gone into production. The potential for over 200 new jobs has been created and an extra 180 megawatts (MW) of annual production capacity added.

Jusung Engineering Co., Ltd. and MEMC Singapore Pte. Ltd.have entered into a strategic partnership agreement to establish a solar cell production facility.