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News | BOS/Inverters
Eric Wesoff: June 9, 2010
Tigo Energy Gets $10M for PV Panel Maximizer
100 megawatts of projects are in the pipeline for the PV panel power conditioning startup.
Tigo Energy, a solar balance-of-system startup, announced that it just added $10 million more investment dollars to its coffers. The new investment was led by Inventec Appliances Corporation (IAC), along with existing investors Clal Energy, Matrix Partners, OVP and ICV. Inventec is Tigo's manufacturing partner and produces high-volume electronic products for consumer technology brands.
This brings Tigo's VC total to $27 million for circuitry… Read More › -
Company Profile | Manufacturing
Eric Wesoff: June 4, 2010
Owens Design Builds Machines that Build New Solar
Behind every solar manufacturer is a tool maker.
Builders of solar panels (and semiconductors and hard disk drives, for that matter) need to focus on technology processes, assembling, testing and shipping their product. The minutiae of the equipment used to make these products materialize is important, but is not the core focus of these firms.
If you tour the factory floor of a modern solar plant, you'll likely find a paucity of people and a lot of automated equipment. Ever wonder where that… Read More › -
Solexant Unstealths with $41.5M and a CadTel Recipe
Solexant also looking for $25 million in loans from Oregon to finance 100 MW factory.
Solexant has raised the first close of a $41.5M Round C from Olympus Capital Partners, DBL Investors, Brichmere Ventures, Trident Capital, Firelake Capital and Medley Partners. An SEC filing shows that they have closed $12.5 million of a $64-million-dollar round.
Solexant claims to have a materials-agnostic platform and a capital-efficient manufacturing process, which brings the cost of solar manufacturing down to 50 cents per watt (that's the… Read More › -
News | Manufacturing
Mark Boslet: June 3, 2010
Suntech Stumbles with Pluto
Production will remain at 4 megawatts per month.
Suntech Power Holdings said Thursday it has run into difficulties making its high-efficiency Pluto solar cells, raising the possibility of a delay in this next-generation technology.
The Chinese solar giant said the problems arose in ramping manufacturing beyond its present monthly pace of 4 MW. As a result, the company said it decided to maintain this relatively modest production level -- probably two factory lines -- until it works out the… Read More › -
Research & Analysis | Manufacturing
Shyam Mehta: June 2, 2010
FREE GTM Research Note and Download: 2009 Global PV Cell/Module Production Analysis and 2010 Outlook
Data and analysis of 2009 cell and module production and the outlook for 2010, free for download
Every year, GTM Research embarks on the slow, tortuous process of collecting data on annual PV cell and module production. In keeping with our mission of providing critical market information to the industry, we are pleased to announce the release of a research note and downloadable Microsoft Excel file with global 2009 cell and module production data, as well as the outlook for 2010 (in case you were wondering, yes, it's nearly June, but most… Read More › -
News | Manufacturing
Eric Wesoff: June 2, 2010
Flexible and Lightweight Solar from HighFlex
Big aspirations from an innovative, garage-size PV startup
What makes California's Silicon Valley unreproducible elsewhere is not its proximity to universities but the entrepreneurial spirit in its DNA. On a typical day, in a cafe or restaurant in Palo Alto, Menlo Park, or Mountain View, most of the conversations I'm involved in or overhear are about new products, new companies and new investments. It never stops. Today I spoke with two garage-stage inventors and entrepreneurs with global-domination… Read More › -
Solar Roundup: CSIQ, National, Trina, SolFocus
Big solar installations christened, Trina goes after high-efficiency PV, and National Semiconductor proves GTM right
The CalRENEW-1 Solar Farm in sunny Mendota, California is being dedicated today. It's the first utility-scale PV solar facility to connect to the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) grid at the transmission level since the start of California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard program. The facility is an operating 5-megawatt solar farm with 50,000 solar modules installed on 50 acres with power to be provided to PG&E and inverters by… Read More › -
SunPower’s High-Impact JV with LCD Giant AUO
SunPower continues to make huge strategic moves.
On Thursday, PV efficiency leader SunPower announced the formation of a joint venture with LCD giant AU Optronics. The JV will own and operate SunPower's 1.4-gigawatt third solar cell fabrication facility (Fab 3), now under construction in Malaysia, with production slated to begin at the end of this year. SunPower and AUO will equally own the JV and contribute equal capital funding.
If AU Optronics isn't on your radar, they are a profitable,… Read More › -
Research & Analysis | Markets & Policy
Eric Wesoff: May 26, 2010
Global Solar Markets: End of the Gold Rush Era
In the coming decade, no single country will dominate the solar market—and that’s a good thing.
Between 2000 and 2009, global photovoltaic demand grew at an average annual rate of 51 percent, rising from 170 MW to 7,059 MW. It's hard to believe that just ten years ago, the global solar market was 170 megawatts. That's now the size of a typical utility-scale installation. Or a small solar factory.
Back in the ancient solar era of 2005 and 2006, there was a common refrain, amongst even the more conservative solar analysts, and it went like… Read More › -
CIGS Rundown and CIGS 2.0: AQT Partners with Solar Enertech, HelioPower
The promise of CIGS solar technology is finally making it to market in a big way.
These are interesting times for the CIGS solar community. Here's a very brief recap of the last few months:
- Stion just unstealthed as a CIGS startup -- with a bit of a twist.
- President Obama will be visiting Solyndra this week, presumably to check on his half-billion dollar investment in the firm. Solyndra continues to win large rooftop installations such as Anheuser-Busch, Coca Cola and Frito Lay. Inside sources say that the firm is sold… Read More ›
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News | Manufacturing
Eric Wesoff: May 24, 2010
MEMC Continues M&A Hunt with $66M Solaicx Buy
Another acquisition from MEMC as the solar market’s consolidation continues
MEMC is one of the larger makers of silicon wafers in the world. Confronted with stiff competition in its core business, MEMC has made a number of strategic investments and acquisitions to bolster its market position.
Today the firm announced the acquisition of Solaicx for $66 million in cash, plus the potential for $37.6 million in additional money and earn-outs based on meeting performance targets.
Solaicx has developed continuous crystal… Read More › -
Company Profile | Utility-Scale-Solar
Eric Wesoff: May 20, 2010
Update: Solaria CEO Dan Shugar Responds
“I don’t take something on if I’m not going to win.”
We had a strong response on this article and smart questions on our comment board. Dan Shugar, the CEO of Solaria, took some time to respond to the issues brought up by our readers.
***
Response from Dan Shugar
Thank you all for the insightful questions, which I will take a quick pass at answering:
Temperature. Great question, the first one I asked when I saw the module. It turns out our cells operate at the same temperature as normal silicon… Read More › -
More Trouble for Applied’s SunFab
The company will “redesign” the business, which will report losses this year.
The slump in Applied Materials' SunFab solar line continued Wednesday, with sales and orders tumbling in the second quarter and the red ink increasing.
With the business now at perilous levels, Applied Chief Mike Splinter said sharp cuts were on the way, even after an $83 million second-quarter write-down of SunFab equipment the company doesn't think it can sell.
"We are taking decisive steps to redesign the business with a lower outlook,"… Read More › -
News | Solar Finance & VC
Eric Wesoff: May 16, 2010
Jinko Solar’s IPO Meets with Tepid Reception
If a relatively profitable solar firm has such tepid results, what are the prospects for an IPO aspirant like Solyndra?
China-based Jinko Solar withdrew its IPO plans earlier this year due to "poor market conditions." Jinko manufactures silicon solar wafers, cells, and modules, and had hoped to raise $100 million.
Late last week, the firm managed to go public on the NYSE, raising approximately $64 million in its maiden offering (here's a link to the prospectus). The company's 5.84 million American depository shares sold for $11 per share, which was at the low… Read More › -
News | Utility-Scale-Solar
Eric Wesoff: May 14, 2010
SunPower Finds an Oasis: Modular Solar Farms
Solar-cell efficiency king taking strategic steps to preserve market leadership
SunPower builds the world's most efficient crystalline silicon solar cells and is the market-share leader in the California Solar Initiative. The Silicon Valley-spawned firm has a strong operational track record -- and a deep ownership of the solar PV value chain. On its most recent quarterly earnings call, SunPower mentioned that it is supply constrained, that its dealer network is on allocation, and that its full 550 megawatts of production… Read More › -
Research & Analysis | Solar
Eric Wesoff: May 11, 2010
Alta Devices: Next Gen PV Challenges Status Quo
Alta Devices is going after 30% PV efficiency at 50 cents per watt; we learn a few things from Alta insiders and patents—and I eulogize Gen 2 solar.
We've reported on the scant details known about stealthy Alta Devices a few times in the past. We talked about solar startup stealthiness and we covered their $3 million in NREL solar incubator funding here.
Alta Devices received $3 million in funding from NREL as part of the DOE's Photovoltaic Incubator Program "to support the development of early stage solar energy technologies and help them advance to full commercial scale," as per the DOE… Read More › -
Global Solar and CIGS Reality
Global Solar claims to be the only CIGS manufacturer in full-scale production on a flexible substrate. Today they announced a record-setting rooftop installation.
In a CIGS photovoltaic universe full of noisy VC-funded startups like Solyndra and Nanosolar, Global Solar Energy is notable for its low profile, longevity, and actual production volumes -- and the fact that they've achieved eleven percent average solar cell efficiency in large-scale manufacturing. The firm has 75 megawatts of production capacity at two sites.
I spoke with Jean-Noel Poirier, the newly installed VP of marketing and business… Read More › -
News | Manufacturing
Michael Kanellos: May 7, 2010
More Applied Turmoil: Masdar PV Abruptly Changes Management
The company is one of Applied’s biggest customers.
Masdar PV, the company set up by the government of Abu Dhabi to make silicon solar panels for utility-scale solar parks, has abruptly changed its management.
The company has announced that CEO Rainer Gegenwart and COO Joachim Neil have "been removed from their roles" at the company. (Now there's terminology you don't hear every day.) Michael Alexander will head up the organization in the meantime. Gegenwart was a longtime solar exec who had run… Read More › -
Company Profile | Solar
Eric Wesoff: May 5, 2010
Envision Solar’s PV Parking Structures, Now Public
Carports are the largest single market for distributed solar power generation?
A few years ago, Robert Noble, an architect, was asked to design a solar carport for Kyocera. He Googled "solar carport" and essentially, nothing turned up. No industry, no market, and no technology.
And then, "It hit him like a ton of bricks." In his thinking, carports were "the largest single market for distributed solar power generation. [. . .] It's better than drilling into a waterproofed roof," according to Noble.
Sustainable Manufacturing | Solar Manufacturing and Development News
