Solar Module | The Green Economy Post: Green Careers, Green Business, Sustainability

Five Promising Thin Film Solar Startups

By Chris de Morsella on January 12, 2010 2 Comments 3M Co., aluminum foil substrate, Austin, Berlin, CA, cadmium-telluride thin film technology, California, China, CIGS, CIGS-on-Aluminum stack, clean room, Copper-Indium-Gallium-Selenide, Department of Energy, DOE, electrochemical process, electroplating process, Fremont, Gallium, Germany, HelioVolt, high-vacuum deposition, Homayoun Talieh, Hudson, IEC 61646, IEC 61730, Indium, Kleiner Perkins, Luckenwalde, MiaSolé, molybdenum, nano-scale CIGS ink, Nanosolar, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL, photovoltaic, Physical Vapor Deposition, polysilicon crystalline, PV, roll to roll mass production, San Jose, Santa Clara, Selenium, solar cell, solar module, solar panel, solar power, Solopower, Solyndra, Tellurium, Texas, thin film solar, thin film solar startup, TX, UL 1703, Underwriters Laboratory

It is a rough time to be a startup in the Solar Photovoltaic sector. The financial crisis and deep recession has not only dried up capital, but has also hit demand for solar panels, which has lead to a global supply glut and a price collapse. In this very difficult environment startups must compete with much larger established global suppliers that have factories of hundreds of megawatts each, an established customer base and well developed brand names and sales channels. In this post we look at five promising CIGS thin film Solar PV startups based in the US and try to catalog their unique strengths and accomplishments.

Six US Based Solar PV Equipment Manufacturers to Watch

By Chris de Morsella on December 10, 2009 1 Comment Advent Solar, Amerimade Technology, amorphous silicon, Applied Materials, automated wet bench, Bedford, CA, California, chemical vapor deposition reactor, cleaning, Coherent, crystalline silicon, dielectric ablation, dopant diffusion, edge isolation, etch-barrier ablation, etching, flexible PV, for thin-film patterning, GT Solar, IL, Illinois, Illinois Tool Works, ITW, laser, laser-assisted selective-emitter formation, lithographic screen printing, Livermore, MA, Massachusetts, Merrimack, multi-crystalline furnace, multi-crystalline ingot, multi-layer screen printing, New Hampshire, NH, photovoltaic inkjet, photovoltaic wafer fabrication machinery, piezoelectric impulse ink jet printhead, plating, polysilicon, polysilicon reactor, Santa Clara, semi-conductor manufacturing, silicon valley, solar cell, solar energy, solar equipment manufacturer, Solar Industry Award, solar module, solar panel, Spire Corporation, stripping, thin film silicon solar, Trident Solar, turnkey solar manufacturing line, wet chemical surface texturing

The manufacturers of the equipment and production lines that are needed to produce solar cells and modules are an important segment of the overall value chain in the solar PV sector as a whole. These companies are making a wide variety of equipment that finds use in the manufacture of solar cells, ranging from tradition semi-conductor manufacturing equipment that has grown out of the computer semi-conductor industry, to more exotic things like specialized inkjet printers and lasers. Who are these US based solar photovoltaic equipment manufacturers and how are they fairing in the global recession of 2009?

Four Big Established US Solar PV Companies You Should Know About

By Chris de Morsella on December 8, 2009 1 Comment amorphous silicon, Arizona, Auburn Hills, AZ, Barcelona, CA, cadmium-telluride, California, China, Cooperation Framework Agreement, Deval Patrick, Devens, Energy Conversion Devices, Evergreen Solar, First Solar, Inner Mongolia, MA, Marlboro, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MI, Michigan, MIT, Philippines, photovoltaic, polysilicon, ProLogis Park Sant Boi, PV, Recurrent Energy, Rochester Hills, S&P 500, San Francisco, San Jose, solar cell, solar energy, solar module, solar power, Spain, Stanford Ovshinsky, SunPower, Tellurium, Tempe, Thin Film, thin-film triple junction, Uni-Solar, United Solar Ovonic, wafer manufacturing, Wuhan

In this survey we are looking at the large US headquartered solar PV manufacturers with a view to examine how they are doing in this difficult economic climate. As basically anyone knows, who has not been cloistered away meditating in some cave, 2009 has been a very tough year for pretty much everyone.

A Cloud Over Solar In 2009; What are the Near Term Prospects for the Solar PV Sector?

By Chris de Morsella on September 24, 2009 6 Comments capital market, crystalline silicon suppliers, Dr. Henning Wicht, financial crash, First Solar, iSuppli, photovoltaic, PV, PV market, Q-Cell, Sharp Electronics, solar energy, solar module, solar module price, solar panels, solar power, solar;, SunPower, Suntech, value-chain, venture capital

By some measures 2009 has been the worst year in the young solar PV sectors history. In fact, global revenue for Photovoltaic (PV) panels is expected to drop by nearly 20 percent in 2009, as oversupply causes prices to crash by nearly fifty percent. Many of the weaker firms may not survive this shakeout and right now things do look very gloomy – even though by some other measures 2009 is not as bad as it may seem. For example more newly installed capacity (4.2 GW) is installed this year than any year – ever; however this is of little comfort to the many firms in this sector that are being buried under an avalanche of negative revenue. This article examines the short term outlook for the solar PV sector going forward, basing itself on market data from a recent iSuppli study.