Industry News
high ratings in two key industry perfor- solar manufacturing facilities in Oregon, from 2204MW in 2006 to 3436MW in
mance tests. Evergreen Solar’s ES-Series provided updates to its thin film solar 2007, an increase of 56 per cent year-on-
String Ribbon solar panel was the top-rated module manufacturing plans to require year. reportlinker.com
panel after completing six months of a year fewer manufacturing components and sig-
long test being conducted by Germany’s nificantly less capital expenditures with the BaSF and centrotherm photovoltaics
TÜV Rheinland Group. The test found objective of providing sufficient manufac- expand joint development agreement
that the Evergreen product delivered turing capacities of 10 to 13 MW necessary BASF SE, Centrotherm Photovoltaics AG
greater kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity to service their existing sales contracts. and its subsidiary GP Solar GmbH have
(per measured kilowatts of panels installed) Budget requirements were reduced to entered into an extended joint develop-
from April through September 2008, than approximately $13 million, or roughly one ment agreement for chemicals required
the other 14 major panel brands tested. third of their current budget. The majority in the manufacturing process of crystal-
In a similar test completed by PHOTON, of cost reductions are attributed to the line solar cells. The first products derived
Evergreen’s ES-Series String Ribbon solar need for significantly fewer infrastructure from this partnership, expected within
panels received high ratings as well, deliver- improvements, initial staffing, equipment 2009, will improve texturing of solar cells
ing 1038 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electric- and operations related to the cost of goods in order to enhance their efficiency. The
ity (per measured kW of panels installed) sold. www.XsunX.com project work is jointly carried out at the
for the entire year. www.evergreensolar.com centrotherm-subsidiary’s research center in
energy Innovations spins out solar Konstanz, Germany and at BASF’s head-
Industrial Nanotech enters solar tracking business unit to form quarters in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
energy market after completing rayTracker, Inc www.centrotherm.de; www.basf.com
successful field trials Energy Innovations, Inc., has spun off
Industrial Nanotech’s “Nansulate Solar” its RayTracker product group to form Sunedison closes $20 million in
is currently being specified on both solar RayTracker, Inc. The formation of the new project financing with union Bank
panels and the pipes and tanks of solar hot company will allow the team to further ex- SunEdison has closed $20 million in
water systems to increase efficiency and pand, develop and capitalize on the grow- project financing with Union Bank, N.A.
lower operating costs. Field trials of Nan- ing demand for its RayTracker GC product The funds provide initial financing on
sulate Solar began a year ago by Universal line. Kang Sun, a seasoned business two projects, including a 1.7 MW ground
Energy Group, Inc., located in Stockton, executive with over 20 years of experience mount installation hosted by the City of
California. The product proved to success- in business creation and management, has Rifle, Colorado. The photovoltaic solar
fully increase the efficiency and lower the been appointed CEO of the new company. energy systems were built with no upfront
operating cost of solar systems when used www.raytracker.com, www.energyinnovations. costs to the host organizations. SunEdison
on the solar panels of solar energy systems com financed, built and operates systems under
and on numerous components of solar hot long-term solar power services agreements.
water systems. Universal Energy Group is Israel’s Infrastructures Minister Union Bank, N.A. also financed SunE-
now including Nansulate Solar as the stan- signs first solar power licenses dison’s 8.2 MW utility-scale photovoltaic
dard in their solar installations and selling Minister of National Infrastructures solar energy system in Alamosa, Colorado.
to other solar energy companies. www. Benjamin Ben-Eliezer on March 2 signed www.sunedison.com
nansulatesolar.com, www.industrial-nanotech. the first two licenses to produce and
com supply electricity by solar energy facilities. Korea emerged as fourth largest
The first license was awarded to EDIG market worldwide in 2008, says
entech Solar announces Construction Management Ltd. subsidiary
Displaybank
restructuring Aora Ltd., which has built a thermosolar Korea’s 2008 PV facility installation vol-
Entech Solar has implemented several cost energy facility, with a capacity of up to 100 ume increased six fold and accounted for
reduction initiatives, including rationaliz- kilowatts, at Kibbutz Samar in the Arava the fourth largest market worldwide,
ing headcount and relocating the corpo- Valley. The second license was awarded to according to Displaybank, a market
rate headquarters from Ewing, NJ, to Fort Arava Power Company, which will build a research company specialized in the
Worth, TX. Entech has eliminated 33 em- photovoltaic facility with a capacity of up photovoltaic and display industries. Korea
ployees, representing a 40% staff reduction to 4.9 megawatts at Kibbutz Ketura in the had a 274MW total installed, compared to
and similar decrease in annualized payroll Arava Valley. Spain (2,281MW), Germany (1,532MW)
expense. In addition, Entech plans to close and the US (333MW). Total 2008 global
its California locations by mid-2009 and report on china and global pV PV facility installation volume was 5.5GW,
has also eliminated a number of consul- growth which represented about US$21 billion.
tants. Entech is targeting a 25% overall Over the past eight years, the capacity This corresponds to 2.3 times of the total
reduction in non-payroll costs by curtailing growth of world’s solar power system has 2007 installation volume, which was about
all non-essential spending and evaluating increased profoundly, from 345 MW in 2.4GW.
outsourcing opportunities. 2001 to 2826 MW in 2007 for a com- For Korea, the total volume of solar
www.entechsolar.com pound annual growth rate of 42 per cent, cell produced by Korean solar cell makers
according to a new report, China and in 2008 was only about 60MW, according
XsunX updates manufacturing Global Photovoltaic Industry Research to Kenny Kim, vice-president at Display-
facility plans 2008, from Reportlinker.com bank. Most of Korea’s installation volume,
XsunX, Inc., a solar technology company In 2007, the global solar energy industry 274MW, was imported from Europe, US
engaged in the build-out of its multi- output value reached $17.2 billion, and the and Japan.
megawatt thin film photovoltaic (TFPV) production capacity of solar cell had risen
36 – Global Solar Technology – May/June 2009
www.globalsolartechnology.com
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