All About Solar | Green Energy News

December 11, 2005 – Vol.10 No.38

All ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news...

SunPower Corporation has done well for itself since its affiliation beginning in 2002 with Cypress Semiconductor. First came the development of the A-300 more-than-20-percent-efficiency cell in 2003 and its commercial introduction a year later. Then came the inclusion of their cells in 2005 in the 12-megawatt Solarpark Gut Erlasse in Germany, as well as its initial public offering in November.

The rising star in the solar industry now has even more good news. The company has signed a $330 million supply agreement with PowerLight, a builder of large-scale solar systems in the U.S. and Europe.

The agreement calls for the delivery of solar products through 2009. The contract includes solar cells to be used in PowerLight’s new residential product, the SunTile (tm). SunTiles are a building-integrated solar product designed to interlock with certain kinds of roofing tiles.

Visit SunPower at http://www.sunpowercorp.com/ and PowerLight at http://www.powerlight.com/ .

The increased demand for solar energy world wide will rely on the supply of silicon wafers used in cells. Despite progress being made on silicon-free solar technologies, silicon solar is still the mainstay of the industry.

The silicon solar business is already a multinational business. China, naturally, is working towards becoming a main player in the business.

LDK Solar of Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province China, has stepped up its efforts to be in the solar game with a purchase of 100 multi-crystal solar ingot growth furnaces from GT Equipment Technologies of Merrimack, New Hampshire.

The purchase of the furnaces, valued at more than $80 million, will bring LDK’s production capabilities for silicon wafers, to the equivalent of 200 megawatts per year in solar cell production in early 2006. Current silicon wafer capacity is 75 megawatts per year. The company is already planning expansion to 400 megawatts per year by 2008. LDK, currently has no plans to make solar cells, just supply wafers to cell manufacturers.

Visit GT Equipment Technologies at http://www.gtequipment.com/ , LDK Solar Hi-Tech Company at http://www.ldksolar.com/ .