Q-Cells and ATS Automation create Ontario JV to develop 64MW of solar
Q-Cells, one of the world’s largest solar PV providers, has inked a deal with ATS Automation Tooling Systems of Cambridge, Ont., to develop 64 megawatts worth of solar projects in Ontario already conditionally approved as part of the feed-in-tariff program. The two companies have formed a 50-50 joint venture called Ontario Solar PV Fields Inc. that is expected to begin construction in 2011. ATS will use Q-Cells’ PV cells in modules it will manufacture at its Photowatt Ontario facility in Cambridge, allowing the JV to qualify under 60 per cent local content requirements. “The Ontario market is projected to be one of the dominant solar markets in North America in 2011,” said Marc van Gerven, Q-Cells North American chief executive.
As I mentioned in a previous post, ATS is one of more than 10 companies that had annunced intentions to make solar modules in Ontario, adding up to more than 1,000 megawatts annually of local manufacturing capacity. ATS was promoting a dual strategy — producing both its own product as an Ontario extension of its France-based Photowatt business, and making modules for other companies under contract. This JV fits with the latter.
Tags: ATS Automation, Q-Cells
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
September 17th, 2010 at 10:40 am
What ever happened to ATS Automation’s Spheral Solar Power? It was supposed to be revolutionary technology, and I just found a press release from June 2004 touting the plant opening and beginning of production: http://www.atsautomation.com/profile/news/2004/062304.htm
“ATS has begun to optimize the 26 individual production processes that are housed in the factory and SSP is expected to begin shipping products this summer.”
It seemed to die quietly, I can find no evidence any were actually made. Was this a stock scam, or a ripoff of Technologies Partnerships Canada? Looks like they got 29.5 million tax dollars, wonder where the money went?
If I sound bitter, its because I lost a bunch of money on the stock.
September 17th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
I took a course at the Kortright Centre a year ago and our instructor showed us one of these panels. He had actually worked with Spheral during that time. It was supposed to be revolutionary and cost effective since kerf (portions of module lost due to cutting in a traditional process) could be used to create the spheres.
Apparently the manufacturing process never got refined and there was some electrical difficulties related to the electron pickup and the electrical contact with the sphere’s surface.
Hopefully things work out for ATS in the solar industry this time around. It is interesting to note that the CEO of Canadian Solar used to work at ATS and worked on the Spheral Solar technology. He later branched out and formed Canadian Solar which is now, correct me if I’m wrong, even bigger than ATS. CSI does not seem to be offering any spherical typical solar which indicates that it may not be worth developing.
September 18th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
[...] Q-Cells and ATS Automation create Ontario JV to develop 64MW of solar Q-Cells, one of the world’s largest solar PV providers, has inked a deal with ATS Automation Tooling Systems of Cambridge, Ont., to develop 64 megawatts worth of solar projects in Ontario already cond….. [...]
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:23 am
[...] ATS/Photowatt would have sufficient capacity to service Recurrent’s needs in the short term. With ATS just having announced a JV with Q-Cells that does not look like an [...]