news digest ♦ Solar
The plant currently has a work force of 280 qualified staff and a solar panel production capacity of 160 MW per year, which could be increased to an annual 480 MW over the next few years. It is already the largest solar panel factory in Italy and one of the largest in Europe.
It was financed through a mixture of capital from the partners, funding from CIPE - which earmarked € 49 million for the project - and project financing with three major lending institutions: Banca IMI, Centrobanca and Unicredit. Following the agreement signed in August 2010, each of the three partners subscribed to a third of the capital - committing € 70 million each in cash or in tangible and intangible assets.
The partners have also contributed their specific expertise: Enel Green Power, with the development and operation of plants generating power from renewable resources at the international level and the retail marketing of photovoltaic panels on a national scale through its subsidiary
Enel.si; Sharp, with its unique compound semiconductor multi-junction thin-film technology already being manufactured at its factory in Sakai, Japan and the marketing of photovoltaic panels through Sharp’s subsidiaries in Europe; STMicroelectronics, with its manufacturing capabilities, a staff highly trained in advanced technology sectors such as microelectronics as well as its competence in innovative energy-saving power-management systems.
The factory output is intended to meet the demand of solar power markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), using both projects under development and the sales networks of Enel Green Power and Sharp.
In this regard, Enel Green Power and Sharp have formed a second joint venture, ESSE (Enel Green Power & Sharp Solar Energy), to develop, build and operate photovoltaic systems in the EMEA area with an output target of over 500MW by 2016. This project will use panels manufactured by the factory, which will also be employed on the 1 MW photovoltaic plant that ESSE will build on the rooftop of the new factory.
Enel.si, the Enel Green Power subsidiary which specialises in the installation of photovoltaic systems for the retail market, will also participate in the marketing effort, offering panels through its franchise network of over 570 qualified installers throughout Italy.
JDSU acquires critical assets from QuantaSol for CPV solar development
QuantaSol’s combination of compound semiconductor triple junction solar cell and MQW technology will be used to accelerate JDSU’s CPV product roadmap.
JDSU has acquired critical product design, patented intellectual property and other assets from QuantaSol, a concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) provider based in the United Kingdom.
The materials used in today’s leading triple-junction cells (InGaP, InGaAs, and Ge) have been adopted from previous industrial processes and are not the optimum combination of materials to maximise the potential efficiency of a triple-junction solar cell. By tuning the sub-cells of a triple junction cell, QuantaSol‘s Multiple Quantum Well (MQW) technology allows more light to be converted to electrical power (i.e. it further enhances its efficiency).
JDSU will leverage Quantasol’s MQW technology for its CPV cell product platform.
JDSU plans to transfer key assets from QuantaSol to the JDSU headquarters in Milpitas, California over the next 6 months.
“The CPV market is gaining momentum with major installations happening worldwide,” said Alan Lowe, president of the CCOP unit at JDSU. “Incorporating key QuantaSol technology will allow us to further differentiate our products and expand our position in the CPV solar market as popularity for CPV continues to grow.”
According to GreenTech Media, more than 1 GW of CPV installations are expected by 2015, a hundred- fold increase from 10 MW of installations in 2010.
JDSU CPV cells are optimised to capture different parts of the sun’s spectrum using multiple junctions, and are expected to result in conversion efficiencies exceeding 40 % in the next few years. This is an ideal range for solar system integrators. The CPV cells are specifically designed to capture concentrated sunlight at 500 to 1,000 times its
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net August/September 2011
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