Solar business from Korea

LG Electronics has acquired third-party certification for its solar cell testing facility from TUV Rheinland, a German company involved in technical, safety and certification services. The South Korean company has been investing heavily in the solar cell business over the past five years, looking to invest 220 billion won (about $185 million) to complete two solar cell production lines by the end of 2010. LG claims to be the world's first company to get third-party certification for a solar cell testing facility. The certification will help reduce the time and money spent on safety testing and the certification of solar cell products, the process of which is currently handled by independent organizations. ``When relying on independent product safety organizations, the process takes about a year and costs several tens of millions of won for each product. Gaining certification will cut the time to about six months and allow us to save about 3 billion won annually,'' said an L...

Centrosolar's Glas unit has increased its annual solar glass manufacturing capacity to 6 million square meters at its factory in Fürth, Germany, and has a new antireflective nanocoating process set to go into volume production before the end of the year. The company says that it has invested €10 million over the past two years to double its production output because of the addition of new customers in Europe, North America, and Asia, and that the newly installed capacity is being fully utilized, with further expansion plans already in the pipeline. The company says that its best-selling product is antireflective-coated solar glass that can boost the annual power output of a solar module by 4-7%. The new patented nanocoating feature set to go into volume production soon can now also be applied just on one side, and across the entire surface, making the processing of this solar glass even more efficient. "At times like the present, where everyone looks very closely at the effici...

In a planned three-year effort to reduce the cost of producing crystalline silicon solar cells by reducing and the amount of Si/Watt that is needed by half and boost conversion efficiencies to approximately 20%, SCHOTT Solar has joined IMEC's newly launched silicon photovoltaics industrial affiliation program (IIAP). The program is expected to see silicon solar cell manufacturers, equipment and material suppliers collaborate and share intellectual property, talent, risk and costs involved in the project. “In the highly dynamic market of solar power, short time to market for new products is essential,” noted Dr. Martin Heming, Chief Executive Officer at SCHOTT Solar AG. “Therefore, SCHOTT Solar is pleased to announce that the company has joined the high-level IIAP R&D program at IMEC, the leading research institute in the field. We support IMEC's ambitious goals and their work towards creating success their partners." IMEC's program will explore both wafer-based bu...