Tag Archives: cigs
Will Nanosolar Survive?
Earlier this year Nanosolar went through a round of layoffs. Our sources claimed 75 percent of the staff was let go with 60 days’ pay. Here’s a California WARN notice showing all 170 employees to be lost on April 15. We spoke with two sources close to the company under conditions of anonymity. There are [...]
Dow Chemical Gobbles Up NuvoSun
NuvoSun, a thin-film solar firm founded by former MiaSolé CEO Dave Pearce, was just acquired by Dow Chemical. Dow had invested in the firm in early 2010. According to sources close to the deal, NuvoSun is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical. Dow has not yet responded to our inquiries. Presumably, the NuvoSun [...]
Rumor: More Layoffs at Nanosolar?
The slashing continues at CIGS solar PV aspirant Nanosolar. Last week Nanosolar went through a round of layoffs, according to sources and verified with a company spokesperson. The spokesperson would not reveal the magnitude of the staff cuts. Sources claimed 75 percent of the staff was let go. The spokesperson said that Nanosolar was “in [...]
Empa Scientists Acheive 20.4% Flexible CIGS Efficiency
A record breaking thin film solar cell has been developed by scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. A team of researchers led by Ayodhya N. Tiwari at the institute’s Laboratory for Thin Film and Photovoltaics have achieved 20.4 percent energy conversion efficiency for their C.I.G.S. solar cells on flexible [...]
Peel and Stick Solar
A new ‘transfer’ style application process allows thin, flexible solar panels to be applied to virtually any surface from business cards to roofs to windowpanes. For all their promise, solar cells have frustrated scientists in one crucial regard – most are rigid, reports Stanford University’s Glen Martin. They must be deployed in stiff and often [...]
Will Future Cell Phones Save Flexible Solar?
Copper-indium-gallium-diselenide, also known as CIGS solar cells are enabling a new suite of flexible applications from solar roof tiles to consumer electronics such as Apple and Samsung smartphones. CIGS have the competitive advantage that they can be deposited on flexible substrates as opposed to conventional solar panels, which enables a variety of niche products. A [...]
Stion Grabs $25M to Boost Production
Just in time for the holidays, Stion Corp. has announced its latest, $25 million round of financing to allow the start-up photovoltaic maker to move forward with its plans to start commercial manufacturing of its next generation photovoltaics. The company is working to bring it’s unique, tandem copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) module thin-film photovoltaic [...]
Ascent Solar Wins Phase 2 Air Force Award
The Air Force recently awarded Colorado-based Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. with a Phase 2 Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award to help develop its next generation of flexible thin-film copper-indium-gallium-diselenide (CIGS) photovoltaic devices. Under the award the company is developing new module designs that the Air Force will test. Ascent’s technology already passed the first [...]
What Went Wrong at Suntech Power?
Suntech Power was the biggest solar panel supplier in 2011 shipping almost 2000 MW of solar modules to various countries around the globe. Suntech, which is also one of the oldest Chinese solar companies has been the biggest solar panel manufacturer in China in the recent past despite losing market share to other Chinese companies [...]