Solar ♦ news digest
facility. The latter plant is expected to begin high-volume production later this year.
SoloPower seeks to make solar power possible on any rooftop in the world. The company employs a proprietary manufacturing technology to produce low-cost, high-efficiency CIGS-based photovoltaic cells and modules. The firm says it currently holds the record on module aperture efficiency for flexible CIGS based modules, officially measured at 13.4 % by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
The cells are packaged into unique, flexible, lightweight CIGS solar modules which require less balance-of-system hardware and are easier to install than traditional silicon solar panels. SoloPower’s operations in Portland are ultimately expected to have a capacity of 400 MW and employ 450 people.
“After developing the process in our demonstration line, the challenge was to introduce the proper equipment and automation to move to large scale manufacturing with high product repeatability while controlling costs.” points out Ayush Jain, Director of IT for SoloPower.
“It was clear that timely production information through automated data collection, advanced reporting and enforced manufacturing protocols were an absolute requirement for a successful technology transfer into production. cmNavigo MES had the modelling flexibility, and represented the best match for our needs. Critical Manufacturing’s product and the people working on this project exceeded our expectations” he adds.
cmNavigo Manufacturing Productivity software was developed from the ground up on Microsoft technologies, providing extensive out-of-the-box functionality and lower cost of ownership.
The system is completely scalable making it ideal from small R&D environments to large-scale high volume production facilities. A full range of MES capabilities facilitate increased control, visibility and productivity for manufacturers seeking higher profitability and a competitive edge.
“cmNavigo supports SoloPower’s innovative technology and use of automation to reduce costs, increase efficiency and maintain high quality,” comments Jeff Peabody, Critical Manufacturing’s VP and acting Managing Director for North America.
”SoloPower has an aggressive schedule, complex environment and large quantities of data to be monitored. It’s an ideal application for cmNavigo and the wide array of MES modules will allow them to minimise the total number of software solutions supporting the manufacturing operations.”
TFG Radiant now owns 39
percent of Ascent Solar The firm is now the CIGS innovator’s largest shareholder
TFG Radiant Investment Group Ltd. has completed the acquisition of the Ascent Solar common stock owned by Norsk
Hydro Produksjon AS, as previously announced on January 4, 2012.
With the purchase, TFG Radiant’s ownership interest increases from 19.4% to 39.0% of the outstanding common shares, making TFG Radiant the Company’s largest shareholder. The shares were purchased for approximately $0.50 per share.
Victor Lee, President and CEO of Ascent and Executive Director of TFG Radiant says “TFG Radiant Investment Group is extremely pleased to increase our investment in Ascent Solar as the company ramps its production and aggressively targets end-markets. We remain very excited about Ascent Solar’s revolutionary technology and look forward to partnering for the long-term, realising the many opportunities for this transformational product in Asia, North America and worldwide.”
Following the close of the transaction, Hans Olav Kvalvaag, a designated representative of Norsk Hydro, resigned from the Company’s Board.
Regarding this, Victor Lee comments, “We would like to thank Hans Olav for his service to the Company. His support has been invaluable to the Company and we wish him well in his future endeavours.”
TFG Radiant Group is a joint venture of Radiant Group, a Chinese conglomerate in construction and real estate, and Tertius Financial Group, a private investment firm based in Singapore. The Group, with more than 3,000 personnel, operates various businesses across China, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, including in metal roofing and facades, import/export trading, real estate investment, project management and consultation, new-energy development, manufacturing and distribution, and gold mining.
Air Products CIGS coming home with new hydrogen selenide facility
The plant in Pennsylvania will produce products to serve the expanding CIGS market
Air Products is expanding its high-purity hydrogen selenide (H2Se) production capabilities at its electronic specialty materials manufacturing facility in the Hometown, Pennsylvania. The new capacity was added to serve the growing CIGS thin-film solar cell manufacturing market. Air Products says it can deliver H2Se to semiconductor and photovoltaic customers at more than 99.99 percent purity levels. “Air Products has a long history of supplying hydrogen selenide and will continue to deliver the cutting edge materials our customers need to manufacture state-of-the-art products,” says Joe Stockunas, global business director, Electronic Materials for Air Products. Industry observers believe CIGS technology holds a lot of promise going forward based on the significant advances in efficiency improvement and high- volume manufacturing that producers have already made.
April/May 2012
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