Manufacturing

U.S. CIGS manufacturing aspirant Siva Power has picked up a cooperative award from SunShot to continue to develop its technology. Siva has set the bold goal of manufacturing its thin film modules in the U.S. with a cost of US$0.40/W in its first year of operations and $0.28/W two years after that.

The Virginia-based solar developer will build the utility-scale projects at three military sites as part of a collaboration with the U.S. Air Force and Navy.

Gathering of leading solar researchers and industry representatives at the Sophia research infrastructure symposium stokes passionate debate about future of European PV.

Volatility due to sinking oil prices and PV development in the Middle East, Barack Obama’s praise of solar, the ITC’s confirmation of import tariffs and Q Cells moving production out of Germany were just some of the week’s headline-making developments.

Data from the Department of Energy and Climate Change reveals some 125,000 homes added solar to their rooftops last year, triggering latest FIT reduction.

Chinese backsheet supplier Jolywood will acquire the backsheet business of Italian supplier Filmcutter. In doing so, Jolywood will expand its ability to supply non-fluoro-polymer PET backsheets.

According to GTM Research, investments in the field last year surpassed 2012 and 2013 but remained below the $1.4 billion the sector raised in 2011.

In the latest chapter of the ongoing trade dispute between certain PV manufacturers in the United States and China, the U.S. International Trade Commission in a vote Wednesday upheld tariffs proposed in 2014 on PV imports from China and Taiwan.

Representing 35% of global module capacity, IHS forecasts a 5.7 GW total effective capacity of Chinese tier-1 module suppliers in the first quarter of 2015.