Suntech Power Holdings has narrowed its planned first US manufacturing plant in Arizona to the town of Goodyear. The site will start with 30MW of initial production capacity, eventually ramping to >120MW.
LG Electronics is readying to launch a new crystalline silicon solar cell production line in Gumi, about 200km southeast of Seoul, South Korea, with 120MW capacity and projected annual output of ~500K solar modules.
Energy Research Centere of the Netherlands (ECN) has made the world's first multicrystalline silicon solar panel with 17% efficiency. The full findings will be reported in the January 2010 issue of the journal "Progress in Photovoltaics" and represents a 1.5% improvement over the previous 15–year old listing of 15.5% efficiency held by Sandia National Labs.
Confluence Solar's decision to build a $200M manufacturing plant in Tennessee is the third major solar power manufacturing investment in the state, and puts it in the forefront of the burgeoning silicon-based solar power industry.
Despite an overall tough year for solar photovoltaics (and most other industries), new installations and shipments of PV modules actually "grew substantially" in 2009, thanks in part to a rush ahead of anticipated tariff adjustments in Germany, according to a recent analysis from IMS Research.
Origin Energy Ltd. and Micron Technology have formed a 50/50 joint venture targeting photovoltaic technology, a combination presumably aimed to help the Australian energy company achieve new levels of high-volume manufacturing efficiencies.
An evening panel discussion at a Jan. 12 Commonwealth Club event in San Francisco sought to find answers to barriers still facing California as it struggles to source a significant portion of its electricity from renewable energy.
Year-end rankings might not tell the whole story about who's most successful in an industry, but they give enough insight to who's figured out what the market needs, notes Navigant Consulting's Paula Mints.
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