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Although subject to court approval, a successful action sale of bankrupt firm, Timminco has taken place. QSI Partners has acquired silicon metal business and assets of Bécancour Silicon, including its 51% ownership interest in Québec Silicon for approximately $31.87 million. The solar grade silicon business and assets of Timminco Solar, a division of Bécancour Silicon, were sold to Grupo FerroAtlántica for approximately $2.7 million.
Following a continued downturn in operating results, Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) will close its 650MW multicrystalline wafer plant at Herøya, Norway by the second quarter of 2012. The closure of the Herøya plant, in the south of the country, will signal the end of all REC’s wafer operations in Norway after the closure of the Glomfjord monocrystalline plant on March 20, 2012.
Arkema and CEA announced that they had developed their collaboration to go outside of the PV field and into the micro-electronics and organic electronics sectors with the creation of two joint research laboratories. The CEA-Leti and CEA-Liten labs aim to develop new high-performance materials and manufacturing processes for France’s electronics market.
PV module and inverter manufacturer, Proinso, have announced that it has established a base in Bangkok, Thailand to serve Southeast Asia’s fastest growing solar market. From here the company intends to extend its reach in Asia even further, with possible development into Vietnam, Laos, The Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia by the end of next year.
Canadian Solar has passed the required tests for compliance with the OHSAS 18001 international standard for occupational health and safety as set out by TÜV Rheinland. This standard certifies that the Canada-based solar wafer, cell and module manufacturer has an efficient occupational health and safety procedure and management system in place for its employees.
Situated in Deagu, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province of South Korea, Jurasolar’s new 60MW module manufacturing facility is nearing completion and will be opened in May, according to the company. Equipped with tools including a fully automated PV module manufacturing line from German company JvG Thoma, the factory will produce the company’s ‘JvG Desert Modules’, named to reflect their ability to perform in extremely high temperatures of over 125°C.
Chile’s Renewable Energy Center has announced that there are currently over 2500MW of PV and solar thermal projects in the pipeline for the country. The report suggests that projects amounting to 685MW are awaiting the start of construction after receiving environmental permits and a further 1903MW are awaiting permits.
Last week, construction for Mozambique’s first solar panel factory got underway with technical personnel from Funae present. The site is located in Beleluane, Matola Rio Administrative Post, Boane District in Maputo as is being built after a bi-lateral cooperation between the governments of Mozambique and India. The site’s main focus will be to reduce the import and acquisition costs of power systems that are produced in other countries.
Sustainable Energy Technologies has announced it aims to reduce design and on-site labour costs by 90% by producing Ontario’s first factory-constructed solar systems. The product will be available through ProFab Solar only, a subsidiary of the partnership between Sustainable Energy and Steeltree Structures. The new systems also claim to offer project developers a reduction in risks during the installation process.
Updated: A severe cost-cutting exercise and manufacturing realignment is underway at First Solar as it plans to axe around 30% of its workforce, permanently close its German manufacturing operations and idle four lines at its facilities in Malaysia. Management blamed the move on the market conditions in Europe and the rapidly changing market demand dynamics within the industry for the restructuring.
