Solar Cells Info

Bitterfeld-Wolfen, 10 December 2007
Source: Q-Cells AG press release
http://www.qcells.de/cmadmin_2_542_0.html

Q-Cells AG (QCE; WKN 555866) has concluded a supply agreement for silicon wafers with the Chinese solar company LDK Solar Co., Ltd. The agreement is a ten year “take or pay” contract covering the period from 2009 to 2018. The total volume will enable Q-Cells to manufacture cells with an overall output of more than 6 gigawatt peak (GWp) additional to current expansion plans. The agreement is based upon the conversion of silicon (43,000 tonnes) into wafers. Deliveries will start with 1,000 tonnes in 2009 and will rise to 5,000 tonnes p.a. by 2013.
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By Chen Qide, China Daily, Dec 11, 2007
Source: China Daily
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2007-12/11/content_6312458.htm

Nantong in northern Jiangsu Province is set to become one of China’s key thin-film amorphous silicon solar cell manufacturing bases after Nantong Qiangsheng Photovoltaic Technology Co Ltd (QS Solar) announced it had launched a $400 million project.  A senior company manager said yesterday that the project, China’s largest of its kind, will be carried out in three phases within three years. The first phase, which consists of three sets of 25 MW production facilities, will see the first set put into operation by mid-January of 2008, Sha Xiaolin, chairman of QS Solar, said.
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Nuying Huang, Taipei; Rodney Chan,
Source: DigiTimes, 11 December 2007
http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20071210PD218.html

Polysilicon prices in the spot market have broken the US$400-per-kilogram mark as photovoltaic cell makers from China are scrambling to stock material, according to industry sources. The sources claimed that only players from the PV industry in China have been willing to pay such high prices, while many of their Taiwan competitors think the high costs would definitely translate into inevitable losses.
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Rodney Chan, Taipei, 12 December 2007
Source: DigiTimes
http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20071212VL202.html

The partnership with equipment supplier Oerlikon is expected to shorten the time thin-film solar cell maker Sunwell Technology will need to begin mass production and to raise yields, according to Robert Wong, chairman of CMC Magnetics, the parent company of the Taiwan-based solar cell maker.  Wong noted that Oerlikon, which supplies Sunwell’s production equipment, has already had experience in mass production for solar cells.  A ceremony was held on December 10 to mark the completion of Sunwell’s solar cell plant in Linkou, northern Taiwan. Sunwell will supply solar cells as well as building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV).
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By Richard Dobson /Additional reporting by Baker Li
Taipei, Dec 6, 2007
Source: Reuters UK
http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKTP33777420071206

Soaring oil prices approaching $100 a barrel are fueling a sleek new kind of solar technology that could some day set skyscrapers and high-rise apartment windows quietly buzzing with renewable energy production.  The emerging technology uses thin films mounted on the glass windows of skyscrapers and other surfaces to harness the sun’s power.  It’s more aesthetic and cheaper than the bulkier conventional solar cells made from polycrystalline silicon whose supplies have tightened and prices have risen as solar energy has taken off.
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by Aled Blake, Western Mail, Dec 18 2007
Source: ICWales
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/business-in-wales/business-news/
2007/12/18/super-thin-solar-film-91466-20262567/

A COMPANY which manufactures next-generation solar technology has signed a research and development agreement with Cardiff University.  Cardiff-based G24i has reached a deal with the university’s school of engineering that will allow it to access the facilities. G24i’s Dye Sensitised Thin Film combines innovative material science and nanotechnology to generate renewable power in a process similar to photosynthesis.
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Albuquerque, NM – December 12, 2007
Source: Emcore Corp. press release
http://www.emcore.com/news/release.php?id=172

EMCORE Corporation (Nasdaq: EMKR – News), a leading provider of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the broadband, fiber optic, satellite, and terrestrial solar power markets, announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding for the supply of 60MW of solar power systems that are scheduled for deployment in Ontario, Canada over the next three years.
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By Associated Press December 14, 2007
http://www.fool.com/news/associated-press/2007/12/14/
china-sunergy-to-supply-asola-with-cells.aspx

China Sunergy Co. said Friday it has agreed to supply Asola Advanced and Automotive Solar System GmbH with solar cells worth 10.2 megawatts of annual generating capacity.  Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. China Sunergy will deliver the products during 2008, and both parties will explore further agreements through 2012.
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December 10, 2007
Source: SolidStateTechnology.com
http://sst.pennnet.com/display_article/314319/5/ARTCL/
none/none/1/Japan-Korea-JV-to-make-solar-cell-tool-components/

Japanese semiconductor parts supplier Ferrotec and Korean LCD devicemaker Central Micronics are forming a JV to produce controllers, heated parts, quartz crucibles used to make monocrystalline silicon ingots for solar cell manufacturing, according to the Nikkei daily.
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Toyko, Dec. 15, 2007
Source: Reuters/Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu, editing by Jacqueline Wong
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUST13412120071215

Sharp Corp will spend close to 100 billion yen ($882.9 million) to build the world’s largest solar cell factory in Japan, Chairman Katsuhiko Machida was quoted by the Nikkei business daily as saying.  The plant will be built next to Sharp’s LCD panel factory currently under construction in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.

It will produce thin-film solar cells, which use less silicon than conventional cells, starting in fiscal 2009, the Nikkei said in its Saturday edition.  The factory is expected to have a production capacity of 1,000 megawatts per year, the largest in the world. The Osaka-based company has an annual output capacity of 710 megawatts.

Sharp first announced plans to build the plant back in July, but had not outlined the investment amount.