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South Korea’s biggest chemicals manufacturer, LG Chem, is planning to spend ₩ 491 billion (US$455 million) on its first polysilicon plant as it looks to take its first step into the PV industry. The facility, located in Yeosu in southwest Korea, will have the capacity to produce 5,000 metric tonnes of polysilicon per year. LG Chem’s board approved the construction plan on Thursday and it has penciled in a completion date of late 2013.
A period of equipment digestion or what’s known as a reset could be at play after aggressive capacity expansions across the PV supply chain in 2010, according to the PV book-to-bill analysis featured in the forthcoming “Solarbuzz PV Equipment Quarterly” report. According to Finlay Colville, senior analyst at Solarbuzz, the PV book-to-bill is forecast to dip sharply below parity before rebounding in Q4’11.
As part of well-publicised plans to keep capital expenditure at low levels while still being able to aggressively ramp capacity, Canadian Solar is partnering with Suzhou New District Economic Development Group (SND) and Suzhou Science and Technology City Development Co (SST) in building a new 600MW solar cell plant in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. Under the terms of the agreement, Canadian Solar will contribute 61% of the registered equity.
Upsolar has commissioned a new 30MW module manufacturing facility in Braga, Portugal. The site is being designed and installed by a leading European automatic line producer and will help Upsolar meet rising demand for its modules across the continent.
Despite a swathe of competitors experiencing a significant fall in demand for modules in the first quarter, Canadian Solar would seem to have bucked the trend and guided robust sales in the second quarter resulting in sell-out shipments during its recent first quarter analyst call. In that call, Dr. Shawn Qu, Canadian Solar’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer highlighted plans for a new 600MW solar wafer plant that would that would be run as a joint venture operation to reduce capital outlay.
The nascent solar arm of electronics giant, Samsung has been shuffled into subsidiary, Samsung SDI, known originally for flat panel display manufacturing but more recently for lithium ion battery manufacturing. Samsung said that the transaction, valued at approximately US$148 million was to ‘manage the company’s resources more efficiently and focus more on its key businesses.’Samsung SDI will take over the solar cell business on July 1, 2011.
Adding to operating R&D collaborations in other regions of the world, dye-sensitized solar cell start-up Dyesol has been awarded grant support by the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI) for the establishment of an R&D facility in Japan. The company said that it intends to establish a materials integration centre in Japan by July, with the facilities fully operational by late 2012.
A report from Bloomberg says that Moser Baer has recently closed a solar cell manufacturing plant to carry out upgrades that would result in higher cell efficiencies. Moser Baer was said to have confirmed the temporary shutdown but had declined to say when the upgrades would be completed and production restored.
M+W Group has taken its PV portfolio past the 10GW mark by signing a contract to build a new 1GW solar cell plant in Asia. By reaching this milestone, M+W is further consolidating its position as a market leading provider of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for silicon and thin-film cell and module production facilities.
Roth & Rau has purchased a production facility from electronics firm, Possehl Electronics in, Shenzhen, China to better serve customers in the region. Financial details of the transaction are to remain confidential. As part of the deal, equipment and personnel of around 145 employees will be retained by the PV equipment supplier. Roth & Rau is being acquired by Meyer Burger.
