Industry He a d l i n e ne w s
legislation
eU seeks 2010 incandescent bulb ban
Government ministers from all of the Euro- lighting in four years. The more cautious proposal advocates the removal of halogen
pean Union (EU) member states have come framework suggests a nine-year phase-out, lamps from the market. The scenario with
together to call for the rapid completion of a with 100 W-plus output incandescents being the highest potential level of energy savings
plan to ban incandescent light bulbs. banned by 2009 and bulbs below 25 W out- – 78 TWh/year, estimated as equivalent to
Politicians from 27 member countries put ultimately being banned in 2017. 34 Mt of CO
2
emissions annually – suggests
emerged from a Transport, Telecommunica- When Compound Semiconductor asked banning all halogens, as well as the least
tions and Energy meeting asking for a ban number-one European LED manufacturer efficient compact fluorescent lamps.
on the least efficient bulbs from 2010. In a Osram its response to the politicians’ state- At the other end of the spectrum, LED-
statement they ask the European Commis- ment, it re-emphasized its commitment based luminaires are highlighted in the EU’s
sion “to submit a draft regulation in 2008 to the proposal of the European Lamp most efficient category, which demands
that will launch a gradual process of pha- Compan ies’ Federation, ELCFED. Claiming 111 lm/W efficiency from a 700 lm lamp.
sing out, until incandescent lamps and all of other multinationals with strong interests in This is perhaps optimistic, however, as
the worst-performing lights are banned.” LED production as members, including GE even the winners of the US Department of
The EU’s current draft proposals give and Philips, ELCFED is squarely behind the Energy’s 2008 Lighting for Tomorrow solid-
two timescales for adoption, with the more slower phase-out plan. state lighting prize achieved just 72 lm/W
aggressive of these phasing out incandescent As well as banning incandescents, the EU efficiency at best.
photovoltaics
S
III-V solar deals ready
in Europe and intends to complete installa-
o
l
A
r
tion by the end of 2010. In contrast, Solar
S
y
S
t
for 2009 build-out
Systems’ planned ramp sees only 2 MW
e
M
S
built at the 154 MW site in 2010, making
SolFocus likely to overtake it as the pro-
Solar Systems has opened the test plant for vider of the world’s largest CPV project.
the world’s largest planned concentrator Construction on Solar Systems’ landmark
photovoltaic (CPV) installation in Australia, station will begin in 2009, with the support
days before being challenged for that crown of its power company backer TruEnergy
by the sector’s biggest European deal. and the Victoria state government.
The AUD10 million ($6.8 million), 140 kW SolFocus is also now primed to under-
CPV research site in Bridgewater is the first take its European deal with the little-known
step in the AUD420 million, 154 MW large- company EMPE Solar through 2009, after
scale site due for commissioning in 2013. completing its 0.5 MW allocation at the
Meanwhile, SolFocus has secured an experimental ISFOC CPV installation.
780 million ($103 million) deal to provide This momentum is good for GaAs-based
more than 10 MW of systems in Spain. cell producers like Emcore and Spectrolab, Solar Systems has opened its heliostat system test
The Californian system maker points out who supply SolFocus, while Solar Systems facility, paving the way for construction to
that this will be the largest CPV deployment has an exclusive agreement with Spectrolab. commence on its large-scale 154 MW plant in 2009.
cellphones
Nokia forecast rattles
Shares in Skyworks Solutions, RF Micro In the current quarter, usually the strong-
Devices and TriQuint Semiconductor, est of the year, Nokia expects 330 million
GaAs chip stocks
whose fortunes are strongly linked to Nokia unit shipments. Although this is below
and the other leading cell-phone makers, expectations, it will still represent a sequen-
fell by between 10 and 20% as investors tial increase from the figure of 310 million
Nokia, the world’s leading maker of cell- digested the news. recorded in the third quarter. Nokia reckons
phone handsets, and therefore one of the If Nokia’s prediction is accurate, 2009 that 1.24 billion handsets will sell in 2008
world’s largest consumers of GaAs chips, would see the first annual decline in hand- altogether, up nearly 9% from the 1.14 bil-
has shaken the industry with its downbeat set sales since 2001 – when there was a 3% lion registered in 2007.
forecast for 2009. drop. Because GaAs-based power ampli- Prior to this announcement from the com-
The Finnish company, which accounts fiers and light-emitting diodes now feature pany, GaAs manufacturers had said that it
for around 40% of all handsets sold, is now in virtually all cell-phone handsets, the mar- was too early to tell what impact the global
expecting total industry volumes to peak ket for compound semiconductor devices is financial crisis would have on the compound
in 2008 and decline next year. Although strongly linked to Nokia’s forecast. And, semiconductor industry. Nokia’s forecast is
Nokia’s is only a preliminary estimate, and since 2001, when around 400 million hand- one of the first pieces of concrete evidence
the company did not detail how much of a sets were shipped, the market has trebled in for makers of GaAs components, and will
slump it anticipated, the impact on GaAs size to a remarkable 1.2 billion units – with no doubt have a ripple effect throughout the
manufacturers was immediate. GaAs companies reaping the benefits. rest of the industry supply chain.
Compound Semiconductor December 2008 compoundsemiconductor.net 5
CSDec08headlinenews 5.indd 5 18/11/08 12:25:02
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