Beijing, China: Oerlikon Solar Receives Chinese Order for Thin Film Manufacturing Line. Oerlikon Solar and Baoding Tianwei have signed a contract for a turnkey thin film solar module production line. The initial production capacity will be 46.5 MWp (Megawatt peak) per year.

Bedford, MA, USA: Spire Receives Indian Module Manufacturing Line Order. Spire Corporation has received a contract from Alpex Exports Pvt. Ltd. to provide a photovoltaic module assembly line for that company’s operations in New Delhi, India.

Irvine, TX, USA: Fluor Awarded Contract for LDK Solar Polysilicon Plant. Fluor Corporation has been awarded a contract for engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services by LDK Solar for the world's largest new polysilicon facility in Xinyu City, Jiangxi, People's Republic of China.

Changzhou, China: Trina Solar Discontinues Development of Polysilicon Production Facility. Trina Solar has decided to discontinue the development of its previously announced 10,000MT polysilicon production facility having a total estimated cost of $1 billion.

Bedford, MA, USA: Spire Receives Contract for Cell and Module Line in China. Spire Corporation has won a contract in China for a combined solar module and solar cell facility. This order includes a 25-megawatt (MW) module factory and an adjacent 25MW solar cell factory designed to produce high efficiency multi-crystalline cells.

Menlo Park, CA, USA: Signet Solar Expands Manufacturing Capacity with Indian Thin Film Plant. Signet Solar, a manufacturer of silicon thin film photovoltaic modules said this week, the company plans to locate its second manufacturing site in the Sriperembudur Special Economic Zone near Chennai, India.

Merrimack, NH, USA: GT Solar Secures $200 Million Contract With DC Chemical. GT Solar, a provider of a comprehensive range of equipment and turnkey manufacturing solutions to the solar power industry, has signed a follow-on contract valued at approximately $200 million to supply DC Chemical Co., Ltd. (DCC) of South Korea with polysilicon reactors.

Tokyo, Japan: Mitsubishi Electric to Raise Cell Capacity to 500MW by 2012. Mitsubishi Electric will invest a total of some 7 billion yen to expand annual production capacity of photovoltaic cells, at its Nakatsugawa Works Iida Factory (Nagano Prefecture), and modules, at its Nakatsugawa Works Kyoto Factory (Kyoto Prefecture).

Bedford, MA, USA: Spire Receives Contract for Korean Module Manufacturing Facility. Equipment manufacturer, Spire Corporation has received a contract from Dongyang Creditech Co. Ltd. located in South Korea to provide a photovoltaic module assembly line.

Santa Clara, CA, USA: Applied Materials Sign Multi-Year Service Agreement with T-Solar. Applied has signed a multi-year agreement to provide the SunFab Performance Service to T-Solar Global S.A. of Spain for the Applied SunFab Thin Film Line.

Munich, Germany: Centrosolar and Qimonda in Cell Manufacture Joint Venture. CENTROSOLAR Group AG and Qimonda AG have entered into a venture for the production of crystalline solar cells. The production plant will be established near Porto (Portugal) next to the existing semiconductor factory of Qimonda.

Jena, Germany: Wacker Schott Solar Commissions New Wafer Factory. WACKER SCHOTT Solar GmbH, a joint venture of Wacker Chemie AG (Munich) and SCHOTT Solar GmbH (Alzenau), yesterday officially commissioned a new factory in Jena for the production of silicon wafers for the solar industry.

Waterloo, ON, Canada: ARISE Technologies Increases in PV Cell Production Plans; Planning to Establish Silicon Plant in Canada. ARISE Technologies is increasing by 56 percent its 2012 production target for photovoltaic (PV) cells at its new plant in Bischofswerda, Germany to 560MW.

Livermore, CA, USA: Adept Technology Supplies Robotics to German Solar Cell Production Equipment Manufacturer. Adept Technology, a provider of intelligent automation software for motion and vision-guided robotics systems and services, today announced that its automation software, robotics and system products have been selected by SLS Solar Line Saxony.

Frankfurt, Germany: Odersun AG Breaks Ground on Second Solar Factory, SunTwo. The growth of the eastern German solar-region Brandenburg continues, as Odersun AG, developer and manufacturer of thin-film solar cells, modules and applications, has broken ground on its second solar factory “SunTwo” in Fürstenwalde/Spree.

Munich, Germany: Linde to Supply Gases to Thin Film Manufacturing Plant. Linde Nippon Sanso (LNS), a company of The Linde Group, has signed an exclusive contract with Malibu GmbH & Co. KG in Bielefeld, Germany, to supply all of the gases needed to make amorphous silicon thin film photovoltaic modules.

Athens, Greece: Oerlikon Solar Receives Thin Film Manufacturing Plant Order from Next Solar. Next Solar, a recently formed solar panel production company based in Greece, will construct its first thin-film solar module factory.

Kjørbo, Norway: REC Announces Polysilicon Plant Cost Increase and Delay. A project review by REC Silicon and its contracting partner Fluor Corp. has revealed that the cost estimate for the engineering, procurement and construction of the new plant for production of granulated polysilicon in Moses Lake, Washington will have to be increased.

Marlboro, MA, USA: Evergreen Solar Begins Expansion of its Manufacturing Facility. Evergreen Solar, a manufacturer of solar power products with its proprietary, low-cost String Ribbon™ wafer technology, today announced the beginning of an 80 MW expansion of its Devens Massachusetts facility.

Merrimack, NH, USA: GT Solar Awarded $91 Million Contract by The Silicon Mine B.V. GT Solar has entered into a contract to supply The Silicon Mine B.V. (TSM), of the Netherlands, with polysilicon reactors and converters worth approximately $91M.

St Peter, MO, USA: MEMC Provides Update on Polysilicon Production. The company reported that during the first quarter it experienced accelerated buildup of chemical deposits inside the new Polysilicon expansion unit ("Unit 3") at its Pasadena, Texas facility.

Pocatello, ID, USA: Hoku Scientific Signs Polysilicon Reactor Supply Contract. Hoku Materials, a subsidiary of Hoku Scientific, established to manufacture and sell polysilicon for the solar market, has signed a new polysilicon reactor supply contract with GEC Graeber Engineering Consultants GmbH.