News

Shell Solar Orders Spire PV Module Equipment

July 22, 2003 by Jeff Shepard

Spire Corp. (Bedford, MA), a leading supplier of solar-electric manufacturing equipment and solar systems for distributed power generation, announced the sale of a SPI-ASSEMBLER™ 5000 to Shell Solar Industries LLP (Camarillo, CA). This will be the fourth SPI-ASSEMBLER 5000 that Shell has ordered from Spire.

"As a premier supplier of photovoltaic module assembly equipment, Spire is committed to supporting Shell's goal of developing a commercially viable solar energy business for the long term," said Roger Little, president and CEO of Spire. "Our automated assembly equipment is designed to give module manufacturers a competitive edge by lowering module production costs. We are extremely pleased to be selected by Shell once again to provide key manufacturing equipment."

The SPI-ASSEMBLER 5000 is a key element in the photovoltaic module manufacturing process. The SPI-ASSEMBLER 5000 automatically interconnects solar cells into strings by aligning and soldering copper ribbons to the cell contacts. The strings are then assembled into finished modules. The programmable equipment can assemble a variety of cell sizes and shapes with minimum downtime, and has been successfully used on all types of crystalline, multicrystalline and ribbon silicon solar cells.