Industry News
already being planned with site capacity ex- just the beginning for FATA Automation, of String Ribbon wafer manufacturing in
ceeding 120MW within the first two years Inc. www.fatainc.com, www.ovonic.com Wuhan, China.
of operation. www.spectrawatt.com The parties expect to finalize the terms
lockheed unveils solar lab of the manufacturing relationship over the
abound Solar opens first Lockheed Martin celebrated Earth Day next 90 days, including obtaining project
production facility by unveiling a giant laboratory for solar financing and other approvals and permits,
Abound Solar (formerly AVA Solar), energy, signaling its entry into the renew- and plan to begin production in the sec-
a manufacturer of low-cost, thin-film able power business. About 200 guests, ond quarter of 2010. www.evergreensolar.com
photovoltaic (PV) solar panels, opened including representatives from the utility
its first full-scale production facility in industry, inspected the three-story collector First solar panel factory in Vietnam
Longmont, Colorado. This facility utilizes that promises to produce reliable energy commences production
a proprietary manufacturing process that from the sun equal to a public utility. As As the tide of photovoltaics (PV) projects
significantly reduces production costs of so- big as it is, Lockheed engineers estimate continues to grow around the world, the
lar panels. The fully automated facility will it would take 1,500 similar collectors first factory to produce solar panels in
create more than 300 new jobs and, when on 1,700 acres of ground to produce a Vietnam has now started up in the Duc
at capacity, will produce 200 MW of solar minimum of 75 megawatts of energy. www. Hoa Industrial Park in southern Long
modules annually. www.abound.com lockheedmartin.com An province. The factory, owned by the
Red Sun Energy Joint Stock Company
Norway opens new research lab Ja Solar starts construction of (RedSun), began production in late April
for solar energy new integrated solar cell plant and will soon be marketing its solar panels.
A new Centre for Environment-friendly JA Solar Holdings has broken ground on During the first phase from 2009-2010,
Energy Research (CEER) will be opened its Phase II ingot, cell and module facility the factory is to manufacture products that
by King Harald on Monday. The title of in Yangzhou, China. According to Chinese can generate 5MWp or 4 million kWh
the Centre is “The Norwegian Research news reports, the production plant will of electricity per year. A second phase is
Centre for Solar Cell Technology.” The cost approximately US$100 million and be set to see the factory raise its capacity to
centre, located at the Institute for Energy completed by the end of 2009. The reports produce panels that will be able to produce
Technology (IFE) at Kjeller, brings together suggested the new plant would increase JA 25MWp per year. RedSun is the result of a
the leading solar cell research community Solar’s production capacity by 300MW. joint initiative between Ho Chi Minh City
and the major solar cell companies in Nor- The new expansion project would seem to and the Rhone-Alpes region of France.
way. The collaborating parties are NTNU, be inline with JA Solar’s planned capacity
SINTEF, University of Oslo, Elkem Solar, of 875MW by the end of 2009, up from oerlikon to outsource production
Fesil Sunergy, Hydro, Norsun, Prediktor, 600MW in 2008. JA Solar claims a solar of thin-film pV equipment to
REC, Scatec, Solar Cell Repower and cell production costs US$10 million, sug- Flextronics in future
Umoe Solar. gesting approximately 6-8 lines could be Switzerland-based Oerlikon, in preparation
added. www.jasolar.com for fast emerging orders for production
Spire opens advanced technology equipment of amorphous silicon (a-Si)
center in Massachusetts Solargiga establishes module thin-film photovoltaic (PV) modules from
Spire Corporation, upgraded and expand- manufacturing JV the Asian market once the global economy
ed its Advanced Technology Center (ATC) Chinese monocrystalline silicon solar recovers, will outsource the production of
located at Spire’s headquarters in Bedford, ingots and wafers manufacturer Solargiga such equipment to Singapore-based EMS
Massachusetts. The ATC consists of a state- Energy, announced that Jinzhou Yang- provider Flextronics International, with
of-the-art PV module production line for guang Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary components supply from Taiwan-based
product development and PV material eval- of the company, entered into a formal joint makers, according to Oerlikon Taiwan.
uations, including solar cells. This center venture agreement with two independent www.oerlikon.com
consists of Spire’s most advanced module third parties, Kinmac Holdings Limited
manufacturing equipment for customer and the other joint venture partner, for the Zhejiang hongchen expands
evaluation and training. Spire’s long-pulse establishment of Jinzhou Jinmao Photovol- capacity with a further DeK Solar
solar simulator, cell string assembler, cell taic Technology in Jinzhou, Liaoning Prov- metallization line
tester and lamination equipment are all ince of the PRC, marking its first step to Following the highly successful perfor-
available. In addition, the ATC is staffed expand to downstream business. The joint mance of a recently purchased DEK Solar
to provide expert technical and engineer- venture company will principally engage in PV1200 photovoltaic metallization line,
ing support for the assembly of customer the production and sales of photovoltaic Zhejiang Hongchen has confirmed the
modules. www.spirecorp.com modules as well as design and installation purchase of a further line from DEK.
of photovoltaic systems. www.solargiga.com
Hongchen chose the new line for its ability
FaTa automation delivers solar to drive productivity, lower cost-of-own-
panel lamination lines evergreen Solar enters wafer ership and dramatically reduce delivery
FATA Automation, Inc. expanded into the factory and subcontractor times. www.deksolar.com
alternative energy sector by delivering a relationship with Jiawei Solar
number of automated lamination lines to Evergreen Solar has entered into a frame MicroScreen establishes
Rochester Hills based Uni-Solar Ovonic, a agreement with Jiawei Solar (Wuhan) Co. new facility
subsidiary of Energy Conversion Devices, a and the Wuhan Donghu New Technology MicroScreen completed its new state-of-the-
supplier of thin film PV solar panels. The Development Zone Management Commit- art facility dedicated to the manufacture of
full turn-key installation of these systems is tee which calls for a significant expansion screens for solar cell printing. Contiguous
34 – Global Solar Technology – May/June 2009
www.globalsolartechnology.com
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