Features

Product Briefing Outline: Honeywell has developed a new material called ‘PowerShield’ PV325, which is designed to provide greater levels of protection to photovoltaic solar cells and modules that are located in more hostile environments. The material is UV-, moisture- and weather-resistant, and designed to also withstand the electrical load produced by the modules, which can operate at up to 1,000 volts of electricity. The material was developed primarily for rigid PV modules, which are specifically designed to feed power into a utility or local power grid.

It is a tale of two strategies when dealing with the U.S. solarmarkets, be they consumer or business markets. Both Akeena Solar andFirst Solar have announced their first quarter financial resultsrecently. The scale of each company is worlds apart and theirapproaches to a growing market segment are at polar opposites, and itshows. These two companies cannot be directly compared; using these twocompanies is purely to highlight a growing trend among many solarcompanies of focussing on certain end-user segments of the solar market.

Product Brief Outline: Sputtering Materials, Inc. is now offering high-density casted CIG (CuInGa) targets for thin film deposition in rotatable and planar form factors for thin film solar production. The casted targets offer high-density (99% +) materials that offer thin film technicians greater control and better material utilization in thin film deposition, physical vapor deposition and sputtering system processing. 

Not your average eBay item up for grabs, rather a piece of photovoltaictechnology history. Nanosolar, roll-to-roll Copper Indium GalliumDiselenide (CIGS) PV solar start-up, has put one of its first threeproduction line commercially-produced PV modules (Panel #2) up for saleon eBay with a $10,300 starting price!

Applied Materials can't seem to leave the solar equipment business alone at the moment, as it continues its acquisition trail. The latest is Baccini S.p.A for a cool $330 million in greenbacks.

Product Briefing Outline: Veeco Instruments recentlylaunched the Dektak 150 Surface Profiler, which is designed to monitorthin films of advanced PVs as well as critical surface roughness, keyfor optimal absorption of photons. The standard Dektak 150 utilizes anewly designed 4 x 4-inch X-Y stage with manual theta. It can beconfigured with a 4-inch Y auto stage that enables 3D imaging, orequipped with a 6-inch X-Y auto stage that, in addition to 3D mapping,provides automation and programmability of over 200 sample sites. Withthe scan-stitching package, the system can perform even longer scansfor stress measurements on larger wafers. Other stage features includewafer alignment pins for ease of use, three-point suspension forstress, lateral calibration for 99.9% accuracy, and a larger scan blockfor improved baseline stability, according to the company.

Product Briefing Outline: Dow Corning's Solar Solutions Group has extended its product offerings for the global solar energy market with an encapsulant and two potting agents that have been tested and qualified for photovoltaic module applications. The PV 6010 Cell Encapsulant and the PV 7010 and PV 7020 Potting Agents have been developed to eliminate the guesswork when dealing with the potential solutions available today.

Product Briefing Outline:Momentive Performance Materials, Inc. recently launched a new productline of Pyrolytic Boron Nitride (PBN) crucibles, heaters and coatingsto consider for the enhancement of the production of CIGS (copper,indium, gallium, selinide) solar cells.

As rumors go, this is not as far-fetched as it seems!