Solar Light Flashes: Intersolar 2007

[Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany]

Quick Photovoltaic News and Fun Tidbits from Intersolar 2007

Company News

SunPower (Stand No 10.2.83, NASDAQ:SPWR): SPR-315 delayed again!
Since I posted Where is the SunPower SPR-315 Solar Module?, SPR-315 deliveries have been rescheduled for Fall 2007, almost one year since the product was announced at Solar Power 2006. A company spokesperson indicated the delay may be related to filling backlog for legacy SPR solar modules. I prefer the conspiracy theory that the new Gen 2 solar cells or the larger module form factor is the root cause. SunPower claims to be taking SPR-315 orders now, and there is already a preorder backlog.

Schott Solar (Stand No F4.2.09): I caught their press conference when they rounded up press folks from the press room today. Schott Solar has plans to expand silicon solar cell and module production to 450MWp per year capacity by 2010. When I asked about silicon feedstock, Schott Solar had no announcement yet about silicon supply to drive this production level. As mentioned here last year, Schott Solar’s EFG (Edge-defined Film-fed Growth) process requires granular polysilicon.

Izusu Glass Co., LTD. (Stand No 9.3.33): Concentrators are red hot! Izusu Glass has a stand at Intersolar 2007 promoting their Fresnel lenses, Compound Parabolic Concentrators (CPC), molded high accuracy lenses, and Cylinder and Micro Lens Arrays for solar and concentrating photovoltaic applications.

Category leaders
Battle of the Booths (Stands): Oerlikon.
Oerlikon Solar (Stand No 10.2.13) beats Applied Materials (Stand No 10.1.36) without breaking a sweat. In fact, Applied Materials is at the top of my list for most boring booth, an honor I awarded to Conergy AG last year in secret. Here are the photos. You decide.

Best Green Giveaway: Phoenix Solar (Stand No 4.4.27).
Phoenix branded apples in the press room are about as green as swag can be.

Most over used moniker: Solar Valley.
Starting at the Intersolar press conference, numerous regions are claiming this progressive renewable energy tag. BSW (Bundesverbandes Solarwirtschaft, Stand No F4.3.61) claimed the country Germany is one big solar valley. The Investitions- und Marketinggesellschaft Sachsen-Anhalt mbH (Stand No 6.3.22) and SAVOIE - Agence Economique de la Savoie (Stand No 7.2.55) also invoked the Solar Valley name at Intersolar. Ms. Cherpin, Directrice Commerciale, pitched a strong case for SAVOIE as a natural valley worthy of the Solar moniker.

Solar Jewelry: Tie between Solarschmuck Claudia Kohm (Stand No F2.5.02) and SolArt (Stand No F2.4.02). A slight edge goes to Frau Kohm who is working through the show with her husband’s help after an accident involving her mouth and neck. I didn’t pry for details. As an extra, Solarschmuck offers custom lapel pins with company logo treatments. One time setup charges range from €100 to € 300 with € 6 to € 9 per piece pricing.

Best Promotion: SOLON AG (Stand No 4.5.47) partnering with VECTRIX Corp.
I bumped into GAME OVER CO2 walking to Starbucks in Freiburg Altstadt after the PV Industry Forum 2007. Solon set up a demonstrator electric scooter photovoltaic recharging station at Platz der alten Synagoge and offered test drives to licensed motorcycle drivers. The CO2 folks were in character and denied their role in global warming. These mega CO2 molecules are nasty but easy to spot unlike odorless and colorless carbon dioxide gases.

Best advertisement: SOLAR-KABEL GmbH (Stand No F3.1.01).
Yes, there does appear to be an artistic approach to making cables exciting. I have requested the electronic version of this ad. The above is a mediocre photo of the poster. I also noticed this ad in the 00 issue of Photovoltaik. This one reminds me of the Claudia Schiffer post.

There is a bluespot gap at Intersolar 2007. Outside of the press room, I have been using an unknown, unsecured WiFi connection available at Freiburg’s Starbucks to post my articles.