The rapid increase in worldwide shipments of PV, the steep growth in manufacturing capacity and the currently positive political climate offer good prospects for the future of PV, but at the same time carry some risks. PV should not be charged with the sole responsibility of solving the climate problem, and, despite its massive long-term […]

The photovoltaic industry has changed dramatically in the last few years. China has become the major manufacturing country for solar cells and modules, followed by Taiwan, Germany and Japan. Amongst the 20 biggest photovoltaic manufacturers in 2012, only three had production facilities in Europe, namely First Solar (USA, Germany, Malaysia), Hanwha Q Cells (Germany and […]

Daqo New Energy (www. dqsolar. com) is a subsidiary of the Daqo Group and was founded by Mega Stand International Ltd. in January 2008. The company built a high-purity polysilicon factory with an annual output of 3300 tons in the first phase of construction in Wanzhou. The first polysilicon production line, with an annual output […]

Tokuyama (www. tokuyama. co. jp) had an annual production capacity of 9200 tons in 2010. In February 2011, the company broke ground for a new 20000 ton facility in Malaysia. The first phase, with 6200 metric ton capacity, started trial production in March 2013, and the second phase, with 13800 metric ton capacity, should be […]

Photovoltaics is an area, like many other technology areas, in which many nationally oriented efforts prevail, and in which national pride and national interests are still important. At the same time, more and more people recognise that international co­operation can be much more effective in many instances, and is sometimes a necessity given the large […]

SunEdison, formerly MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (http://sunedisonsilicon. com), has its headquarters in St. Peters, Missouri. It started operations in 1959 and it makes semiconductor-grade wafers, granular polysilicon, ultra-high purity silane, trichlorosilane, tetrafluorosilane and sodium aluminium tetrafluoride. In February 2011, the company and Samsung entered into a 50/50 equity joint venture to build a polysilicon plant […]

PV costs are decreasing by 5-10% per year. At the time of writing (early 2000), module prices are in the range 3-4 US$/Wp, and complete systems are installed for prices in the range 5-10 US$/Wp, depending on size and type. With a typical annual output between 750 and 1500 kWh per kWp installed, this translates […]

In 2005, Renewable Energy Corporation AS (REC) (www. recgroup. com) took over Komatsu’s US subsidiary, Advanced Silicon Materials LLC (ASiMI), and announced the formation of its silicon division business area, REC Silicon Division, comprising the operations of ASiMI and REC Solar Grade Silicon LLC (SGS). Production capacity at the end of 2012 was around 22400 […]