All About Solar | Green Energy News

September 10, 2006 – Vol.11 No.25

ALL ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news.

It’s not all that difficult to get into the solar cell and module business. Companies like Spire Corporation, GT Solar or Amtech Systems will sell you turnkey solar cell and wafer production lines as well as complementary turnkey module and manufacturing lines. They’ll even help you get set up and teach you how to make solar cells.

In the end you’ll have a decent product and you’ll be in growing solar energy business, but you won’t be producing cutting edge solar products.

For cutting edge solar you’ll have to go beyond buying solar manufacturing equipment from a vendor. You’ll have to make the equipment itself. That is what separates ECD Ovonics and its United Solar division from many others. Everything from research and development to design and engineering to manufacturing and building the manufacturing equipment is done in-house.

Home grown may also be the reason ECD has been slower in its expansion than other companies. It takes time to build all the solar-making machines from scratch rather than just buying them.

Yet ECD is slowly expanding and has plans to have 300 megawatts of solar building capacity in place by 2010 up from 28 megawatts today. This Fall the company will have another 30 megawatts ready for operation and the company has just announced that it would have an additional 60 megawatt facility in Greenville, Michigan operating by the end of 2007.

It appears from now till 2010 the company will be in continuous expansion mode.

The company’s cutting edge solar are amorphous thin-film triple junction cells that are made on a roll-to-roll process. The solar cells and the company’s solar products are flexible and lightweight and don’t require a glass cover for protection from the elements. Visit ECD Ovonics at http://ovonic.com/ United Solar at http://www.uni-solar.com/ Spire at http://www.spirecorp.com/ GT Solar at http://www.gtsolar.com/ .

For companies that make the equipment to manufacture solar cells business has been as brisk as those who make and market solar products themselves.

During the last 12 months Amtech Systems has received about $9 million in orders for solar manufacturing equipment including a recent $2 million order from an undisclosed Asian-based solar company. Amtech’s solar orders for the past 12 months have increased 500 percent over the previous 12 month period. Visit Amtech at http://www.amtechsystems.com/