Solar Cells Info

XINYU CITY, China and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept 03, 2008
Source: LDK Solar Co. Ltd press release
http://www.ldksolar.com/9-03-08.html

LDK Solar Co., Ltd (“LDK Solar”) (NYSE: LDK), a leading manufacturer of solar wafers, announced today that it has signed a five-year contract to supply multicrystalline solar wafers to Taiwan-based Solartech Energy Corp. (Solartech). Under terms of the agreement, LDK Solar will deliver approximately 550 MW of multicrystalline silicon wafers to Solartech over a five-year period, commencing in 2009 and extending through 2013. Solartech will make an advanced payment representing a portion of the contract value to LDK Solar. (more…)

Xinyu City, China and Sunnyvale, CA,  Sept 04, 2008
Source: LDK Solar Co. press release
http://www.ldksolar.com/9-04-08.html

LDK Solar Co., Ltd. (“LDK Solar”) (NYSE: LDK), a leading manufacturer of solar wafers, today announced it has signed a new agreement with GT Solar International, Inc. (Nasdaq: SOLR) (“GT Solar”) to purchase polysilicon CVD reactors for installation in LDK Solar’s manufacturing facilities in Xinyu City, Peoples Republic of China. This equipment is used to make polysilicon. The estimated value of the contract is $32 million. (more…)

Xinyu City, China and Sunnyvale, CA, Sept 05, 2008
Source: LDK Solar Co. Ltd press release
http://www.ldksolar.com/Press%20Release.html

LDK Solar Co., Ltd, a leading manufacturer of solar wafers, announced today that it has signed an eight-year contract with Japan- based Sumitomo Corporation (“SC”), one of the leading trading and investment houses in Japan to supply multicrystalline solar wafers to a leading manufacturer of solar cells and modules in Japan. Under terms of the agreement, LDK Solar will deliver approximately 750 MW of multicrystalline silicon wafers to Sumitomo over an eight-year period, commencing in 2009 and extending through 2016. Sumitomo will make an advanced payment representing a portion of the contract value to LDK Solar. (more…)

by Motonobu Kawai, Nikkei Microdevices, August 6, 2008
Source: TechOn
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080806/156124/

Sanyo Electric Co Ltd held an opening ceremony of the “Shiga Plant,” a new production base of solar cell modules, whose annual production capacity is expected to reach 40MW by the end of fiscal 2008. Following the opening of the plant, Sanyo’s annual production capacity of solar cell modules will become 340MW at the end of fiscal 2008, including the capacities of the Tokyo Plant, the Nishikinohama Plant, the Hungary Plant and the Mexico Plant. (more…)

by Motonobu Kawai, Nikkei Microdevices, Sept 3, 2008
Source: TechOn
http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080903/157415/

Q-Cells AG of Germany exhibited a cell made of solar-grade silicon, a silicon material used only for solar cells, for the first time at the EU PVSEC (23rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition). The company aims to put the new solar cell, Q6LEP3, into practical use in 2009 or 2010 with a conversion efficiency of 16%, equivalent to that of the existing cells. (more…)

Tokyo, Aug 26, 2008
Source: AFP / http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hKDz0BRmiysApQu6hLiGhfCP-tMQ

Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said Wednesday it will spend 50 billion yen (458 million dollars) to boost solar power cell production four-fold by early 2012 amid growing interest in renewable energies. The group said it will build a new facility on the site of an existing plant in Nagano Prefecture to step up production of photovoltaic cells in response to a sharp increase in demand for solar power generation systems. (more…)

Nanjing, China, Aug. 29, 2008
Source: ET Solar Group Corp. press release
http://www.etsolar.com/en/ns_305__777.html

ET Solar Group Corp. (“ET Solar”), a Nanjing-based solar power solution provider and integrated manufacturer of photovoltaic products including ingot, wafer, module, and state-of-the-art dual-axis tracking systems with manufacturing facilities located in Taizhou, China, announced today a master agreement for the turn-key construction of solar power plants for Wattner Group of Cologne (“Wattner”), a German initiator of closed-end energy and infrastructure funds.  Under the agreement, ET Solutions AG, the solar power solution arm of ET Solar, will deliver solar installations to Wattner worth of 200 million EUR. The solar power plants will be realized primarily in Southern Europe within the next 5 years. (more…)

By William Pentland, Forbes, August 29, 2008 Source: CBCNews.ca http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/08/27/f-forbes-saudisolar.html

In the wake of the first Gulf War, the U.S. Army assessed Saudi Arabia’s solar energy resource potential in a classified effort to determine how oil fires had affected the region. The results were clear and surprising. In addition to being a vast petroleum repository, the desert nation was also the heart of the most potentially productive region on the planet for harvesting power from the sun. In other words, Saudi Arabia was the Saudi Arabia of solar energy. (more…)

Shelton, Conn and Toronto, Canada, Sept. 03, 2008
Source: OPEL International Inc, press release/MarketWatch

OPEL International Inc. (CA:OPL: news, chart, profile) (“OPEL” or “the Company”), a leading global developer and supplier of high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) and other solar products, today announced that testing of its Mk-I HCPV solar panel verified that it qualifies under the provisions of the IEC 62108 standard. With the achievement of this milestone, OPEL has positioned itself to be a leading supplier of HCPV panels in the important European market and beyond.

OPEL’s Mk-I will now ship bearing the CE label indicating compliance with European market requirements, meeting the quality standard for PV products and other solar equipment in European markets. The CE certification of OPEL’s Mk-I product will allow OPEL’s customers to apply for permits and feed-in-tariff contracts, thereby accelerating the deployment of their planned installations.
In addition, with CE qualification completed, a number of market opportunities are now open for OPEL’s Mk-I

HCPV panels in other markets that use European standards as guidelines for their own installations.
“With this CE Qualification, we have achieved a very ambitious milestone that we set for ourselves earlier in the year, and done so ahead of schedule,” said Dr Javier Berrios, OPEL’s Vice President of Engineering. “I can’t be more pleased with our Qualification and the performance of the high efficiency Mk-I HCPV panel. Most importantly, our customers in Europe, Asia and the Mid-East will now receive Mk-I HCPV panels with CE labels for their applications.”

The Mk-I concentrates light more than 600 times and has one of the highest efficiencies of concentrators in commercial production today. The Mk-I was shipped to customers in the Czech Republic, France, Spain, Korea and the United States, for large scale solar grid field applications.

SAN FRANCISCO and WUXI, China, Sept. 2, 2008
Source: Suntech Power Holdings Co. press release
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=192654&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1192397

Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. (NYSE: STP), one of the world’s leading manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, today announced that it has signed a definitive seven-year polysilicon supply agreement with DC Chemical Co. Ltd., a leading multinational chemicals producer headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Under the terms of the agreement, DC Chemical will supply Suntech specified annual volumes of polysilicon with a total value of approximately $750 million from 2010 to 2016. (more…)