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Review inteRnational newS Oerlikon delivers a International 120 MW plant to Russia In the mid-August, Oerlikon So- lar received an order from Nano NEWS Solar Technology Ltd. (NST), a newly formed Russian high-tech company, for a thin-film panel production plant. The plant will have a production capacity of 120 MW. NST is a joint venture between Renova Group and the Russian Corporation of Nano technologies (Rusnano). At a planned annual capacity of a million solar modules, this is the largest order for a thin-film pho- tovoltaic production facility worldwide this year. Oerlikon’s micromorph technology is included in the order. NST plans to supply mainly the markets in Spain, Italy, Greece and Germany. The plant will be delivered in 2010 and production is planned to begin in 2011. The plant is currently under construction in No- Largest solar PV fab in Switzerland opened – equipped with Oerlikon Solar’s micromorph vocheboksarsk (Chuvash Republic). The or- end-to-end PV module production line. Photo: Oerlikon Solar der also includes a muli-year maintenance contract. Along with the planned production Switzerland’s largest module production plant, Rusnano will collaborate with the Iof- fe Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian The Pramac Group and Oerlikon liver in the solar world.” In the capital-inten- Academy of Sciences to establish a large re- Solar announced at the end of sive solar module manufacturing business, search center dedicated to increasing the ef- July that production has begun at Switzer- it is important to minimize the amount of ficiency of solar modules. land’s largest solar module manufacturing time between the start of construction and facility. Oerlikon Solar’s micromorph end- the start of commercial production and rev- US Military to buy to-end manufacturing solution enabled enues. Implementing an end-to-end solu- Pramac to reach production just seven tion can reduce the delay and uncertainty of 500 MW solar plant months after completing their facility. The construction time, production ramp-up and The US Military has selected the plant near Locarno, Switzerland, will pro- module certification. Clark Energy Group and Acciona duce 30 MW of thin-film solar panels every The Pramac facility will produce approx- Solar Power to build a 500 MW solar power year and create 150 jobs in the region. imately 250,000 solar modules every year. plant at Fort Irwin, California. Clark and Ac- “We are pleased to begin production so One year’s worth of output from the facility ciona were selected by the US Army Corps soon after building our factory, because it would be able to cover the approximate of Engineers, Baltimore District, Enhanced allows us to address the fast-growing solar scope of all of the currently installed PV in- Use Leasing (EUL) programme working in market and gain a return on our investment stallations in Switzerland. partnership with Fort Irwin and the Depart- more quickly”, said Paolo Campinotti, CEO The factory is Pramac’s first solar pro- ment of the Army. The 500 MW solar power of Pramac Group. “Pramac is benefitting duction location. Based on predicted market plant is part of an even bigger approach, to from Oerlikon Solar’s renowned technology, growth, Pramac plans to expand the plant’s deliver a 1,000 MW capacity of renewable ramp-up experience and reputation to de- capacity over the coming years. energy. Clark and Acciona plan to reach the 500 MW capacity through both photovolta- ic and concentrated solar power (CSP) tech- Solar power for 3,900 villages in India nology which will be implemented step by step. The Indian federal state Karna- mulative capacity is anticipated to be in The Fort Irwin Solar Energy EUL pilot taka has launched a self-sus- the range of 16 MW. project is an initiative of the Secretary of taining solar technology programme for The generated power would be metered the Army’s Senior Energy Council. It is 3,900 villages in the 39 most backward re- and made available at a fee determined in tasked with coordinating and promoting of gions of the state that have either no elec- advance that is self-sustainable. These energy security and policy for the Army by tric supply or get poor voltage at present. projects will provide power either through utilizing measures for saving and careful It will cater to the energy needs of 5 million a local mini-grid or stand-alone or be made use of energy while also encouraging the people. The state-owned Karnataka Re- available at a charging station, enabling production of alternative sources of energy newable Energy Development Ltd. will play residents to charge their electrical appli- from the Army’s substantial land holdings the role of facilitator in the project. The cu- ances. across the United States. 6 Sun & Wind Energy 9/2009 ALPINEISLAND-AEN083210 www.SMA.de Sunny Island – Electric power. Everywhere. Whenever and wherever electric power is needed, the Sunny Island battery based inverter provides perfect sine wave off-grid electricity with high efficiency, robust power and outstanding reliability and flexibility. In addition, the modular design results in simple integration of different energy sources. Simple to install and use, yet loaded with powerful and advanced features: with the Sunny Island SMA continues the successful AC coupling concept. To receive your free DVD about the possibilities of off-grid systems powered by Sunny Island, contact us today. The Future of Solar Technology Sun_Wind_Energy_0709_SMA.indd 1 04.08.2009 08:42:36 Review inteRnational newS PV market: the ware Inverter efficiency: new world record houses are filling up The Fraunhofer Institute for So- thermal losses, smaller cooling devices The US market research compa- lar Energy Systems (ISE) from and a more compact construction. These ny iSuppli reports that the aver- Freiburg, Germany, has set a new world savings also help to compensate for the age storage period of PV products has in- record of 99.03 % for the efficiency of PV higher price that has to be paid, especially creased by 64.3 %. The reason for this de- inverters. The researchers have reduced for the silicon carbide components. Burger velopment is that the production capacities the losses by another third in comparison states: “I see enormous potential for the have increased massively, whereas de- with their previous top performance invert- new silicon carbide transistors. They are mand is rather poor at present. In the first er. “We now use junction field-effect tran- constantly becoming better and less expen- quarter of 2009, modules, cells, wafers and sistors made of silicon carbide and manu- sive, whereas the costs for passive compo- polysilicon remained in storage for an aver- factured by SemiSouth Laboratories Inc. nents containing significant amounts of age of 121 days. In the same quarter of This is the main reason for the improve- copper and other metals are rising continu- 2008, the corresponding figure was only ment”, explains Bruno Burger, leader of ously.” 74.2 days. the Power Electronics Group at Fraunhofer The efficiency world record was meas- Because additional production capaci- ISE. “In addition, we have optimized the ured for a complete PV inverter, including its ties for polysilicon are going into operation gate units and many other details of the internal power supply, a digital signal proc- this year, iSuppli expects the current price circuit.” In practice, this not only improves essor for controls, a grid filter and a relay for erosion to continue along the entire value efficiency: higher efficiency implies lower connection to the grid. creation chain. The spot price for silicon, the key material of the PV industry, will drop to just under 50 US$/kg by the end of 2009, the company says. At the beginning of the year, the price still amounted to 180 US$/kg. Suntech to build 1.8 GW in China Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. recently entered into a number of strategic agreements with several provinces in China to develop solar projects with a total capacity of 1.8 GW. The projects will be built in the prov- inces of Ningxia, Qinghai, Sichuan and Panzhihua City. One Project will have a capacity of 300 MW, while the other three 99.03 % efficiency thanks to silicon carbide. The modern components are still expensive, are planned to reach a capacity of 500 MW but they have proven their efficiency. Photo: Fraunhofer-ISE each and will be developed in several stag- es. These provinces have high solar re- sources making them ideal locations to China releases 500 MW Taiwan plans a PV roof generate solar electricity. PV programm programme The implementation of these projects is subject to the fulfilment of a number of The Chinese government re- Starting in 2010, the Taiwanese conditions including obtaining related per- leased details of the “Golden trade ministry is planning to im- mits from the National Development and Sun” demonstration programme. It con- plement a PV roof programme to install Reform Commission and other relevant sists of financial subsidies and technologi- 100,000 roof systems with a total output of government bodies. cal assistance for large scale projects be- 300 MW. “These strategic agreements demon- tween 300 kW and 20 MW. In June, in the run-up to the programme, strate the commitment of governments of The subsidies will range from approxi- the Renewable Energy Development Stat- Shaanxi, Shizuishan, Qinghai and Panzhi- mately 50 % of the total investment for ute was passed which regulates the legal hua to adopt utility scale solar energy to grid-connected PV up to 70 % for off-grid framework for investments in renewables. power sustainable development. With on- projects in areas with underdeveloped grid For instance, the statute provides subsidies going investment in technology and inno- connection.