Company showcase

10 renewable energy focus May/June 2008

Showpiece Chinese station to be roofed with Würth modules CIS PV modules from Germany’s Würth Solar are being used in the roof of Beijing’s new South Railway Station, due for completion in August 2008, in time for the Olympic Games.CIS is a compound of copper, indium and selenide. The grid-coupled system consists of 5,200 CIS PV modules with a peak nominal power totalling around 390 kW, and represents the world’s largest building integration of PV modules that use CIS technology.

The modules, set in an alternating chess board pattern with clear glass arrays, traverse the building’s freely suspended roof like a ribbon. They also shade the interior and help cut air-conditioning costs. Timo Bauer, product manager at Würth Solar, says, “this project underlines the advantages of CIS technology, which combines flexible applicability and high-energy yields.” Würth Solar has teamed up with the Ruihua Construction Corporation, a Chinese company, for this project.

6N Silicon secures US$20 million in fi nancing In a move toward commercial production, 6N Silicon Inc., a Canadian supplier of true solar grade silicon for the PV industry, has secured up to US$20 million in second round fi nancing. Good Energies, a global investor in the renewable and energy effi ciency sectors, was the lead investor, with Ventures West Management and Yaletown Venture Partners, both major investors in 6N’s fi rst round, also participating. Aiming to provide the lowest cost solar grade silicon from standard metallurgical grade silicon, the company uses a “disruptive process”, eff ectively eliminating the need to blend in high-purity silicon. This process is expected to dramatically lower input energy requirements against conventional silicon purifi cation processes.

Dutch consortium aims to cut PV solar costsA Dutch consortium called Sunovation II has been formed to develop the manufacturing processes and equipment that will lay up very thin rear-contact solar cells. The target production rate is one cell per second, said to be 6 to 8 times faster than any existing technology.In its pilot project, the consortium – including TTA/Eurotron, Solland Solar, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) and the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) – uses low-stress interconnection technology, including conductive adhesives. Key technology is the low-stress interconnection using conductive adhesives. Conductive adhesives need curing at an elevated temperature, which is carried out in combination with the encapsulation process. This reduces the handling of solar cells to a pick-and-place action, which is important for large-scale manufacturing at high yield. In the ECN’s “Pin-Up Module” (PUM), electrical connections at the front of the cell are routed to the rear through holes in the cell, resulting in improved performance as shadow losses are reduced and more available solar energy captured. The consortium claims that the one cell per second rate would pave the way for low-cost, high performance silicon solar modules and price-competitive solar electricity. To achieve so-called “grid parity”, reports the consortium, modules need to be produced at costs of around €1 per watt peak power.

Borevind invests in wave energy The Swedish investment company Borevind AB has acquired 10% of early stage Norwegian wave energy company Langlee Wave Power AS. The cost was NOK 1,050,000 – with an option to increase the stake. The acquisition is Borevind’s fi rst within the wave energy sector. Langlee’s system, unlike other wave techniques, takes advantage of the horizontal movement of wave energy. As it does not depend on larger waves, it does not have to be placed far out to sea. If devices can be placed near the coastline and near existing electricity distribution networks, maintenance can be done under water and cost effi ciency increased, says the company. Owe Linton, ceo of Borevind, says, “we see an expanding interest in wave energy and [more] insight about its value for energy distribution in the world.” Commercialisation of the technique is planned for 2010.

Concentrix Solar completes fi nancing round Concentrix Solar GmbH, a Fraunhofer Institute SE spin off active in concentrating PV, has completed its second fi nancing round. The new capital will be used to fi nance Concentrix’ fi rst industrial production line and develop markets in Southern Europe. A new joint venture, Concentrix Iberia S.A, is set to commercialise Concentrix’ FLATCON technology in the Spanish market. FLATCON is the Fresnel-Lens All-Glass Tandem Cell Concentrator from the Fraunhofer Institute SE based in Freiburg, together with the Ioff e-Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. These concentrator modules have an all-glass design and are said to operate dual- and triple-junction solar cells and Fresnel lenses with the highest effi ciency – achieving a concentration ratio between 120 and 500 suns.

Conergy sells its fi rst PowerWind 56 wind turbines Conergy Wind GmbH, a subsidiary of Conergy AG founded in 2007, has sold its fi rst two PowerWind 56 (900 kW) wind turbines to German project developer Energiequelle, which has already installed wind turbines with a total output of more than 600 MW in Europe. The Conergy PowerWind 56 is said by the company to provide “outstanding versatility” with regard to application and planning. It has a rated output of 900 kW and is certifi ed under the IEC type class IIA. The company says it sees strong demand worldwide for wind turbines in the 1 MW-class.Klaus Pötter, technical managing director at Conergy Wind, said, “its full converter and trendsetting cooling concept make the Conergy PowerWind 56 ideal for exporting to developing wind markets. The deliberately limited size of the system and its maximum height of 100 metres allow for maximum fl exibility when it comes to usability and logistics, even in established markets such as Germany.”

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