In order to better serve customers in the North American region, JinkoSolar Holding’s has opened a new office in Ontario, Canada. Furthermore, to satisfy Canada’s local content manufacturing requirement, the company has paired up with local manufacturer Heliene. Heliene will produce Jinko modules in Ontario helping it meet the “Made in Ontario” requirements.
Having started production of CdTe thin film modules at its first facility located in Longmont, Colorado in 2009, Abound Solar said it would close the facility to accelerate the migration to its Gen 2 higher efficiency modules with the loss of 180 jobs. Abound Solar received a US$400M loan guarantee from US Department of Energy to build and expand capacity in 2011. The new plant is being built in Tipton Indiana.
News reports originating in South Korea and covered by both European and US trade press point to claims that Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) is preparing to restructure its PV operations. HHI was reported to be halting PV power plant projects in the US and offering for sale a crystalline silicon production facility as it struggles to combat weak demand, reports claim. However, a letter sent to concerned customers, of which a copy is in PV-Tech’s possession, was written by senior executive vice president & COO, Dr. Choong-Dong Lee of Hyundai’s Green Energy Division, refuting media claims.
EDF Energies Nouvelles, a subsidiary of the EDF group, received permission from the Commercial Court of Vienne to buy Photowatt International’s assets out of bankruptcy and continue its operations. EDF ENR’s offer stipulates that the entire Photowatt workforce will be transferred to a newly established subsidiary of EDF ENR or redeployed within the EDF group. As of March 1, EDF ENR’s subsidiary will be the operator of Photowatt’s assets, relieving Automation Tooling Systems’ from its solar business operations in France.
Local and national government officials were on hand with representatives of SolarCity as the company celebrated the official opening of its new operations centre in New Jersey. The company advised that it hopes that its expanded presence in the state will not only engage more homeowners and businesses to install solar panels, but will bring new jobs and cleaner energy to the community.
Intertek’s Lake Forest, California laboratory has been designated as a certified body testing laboratory for IEC 62108 with the company receiving accreditation by the IECEE to issue IEC Certification Body (CB) reports for CPV modules to IEC the standard. The certification enables Intertek to provide CPV manufacturers with a CB certification and test reports, which, it notes, can be used to obtain global certifications with IECEE member countries and participating certification bodies on top of receiving North American certification.
SPI Solar, US-based EPC services provider, has announced its third Greek venture, having acquired the necessary paperwork. Working alongside local partners SDL Solar and Global Energy Services, the installation is expected to be a 1MW fixed-ground-mount solar facility, located in Rhodope Prefecture, north-eastern Greece. The electricity will be purchased by Greek Public Power Corporation through a 20-year PPA.
The Bankruptcy Court overseeing Solyndra’s insolvency has assigned Jones Lang LaSalle to undertake the sale of its manufacturing plant in Fremont, California. The 450,000-square-foot manufacturing facility was said to be designed to exceed California seismic standards and can be operating immediately following a seismic event, though not at the levels created by the current solar industry shakeout.
JinkoSolar Holdings has opened a PV module testing lab in Jiangxi, China, which was awarded the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Witness Testing Data Program (WTDP) certificate. The company worked with UL to obtain certification and will now be able to offer customers and third parties testing facilities, under the supervision of UL personnel, with an aim to ensure high quality and expedite the time to market.
According to RenewEconomy, Silex Systems has restarted production at its solar module facility in Sydney, Australia. The company announced in November that it would be halting production as it was hard hit by the rooftop solar market and was looking for ways to restructure its business. The report states that Silex decided to start operation again, upon Tindo Solar’s plans to begin commercial production were publicized. Plans to continue ramping up capacity at the company’s Sydney site are being considered.
Apple has announced in its Facilities Report it is to construct the largest end user owned, onsite solar array in the US. The rumours surrounding the technology company’s renewable energy goals have been put to bed. The 20MW facility, in Maiden, North Carolina, will be installed on 100 acres of land, supplying 42 million kWh of renewable energy annually. Apple will also be building a fuel cell installation, powered by 100% biogas to provide more than 40 million kWh of baseload renewable energy annually.
The fuss over electricity payments by Hoku Materials to Idaho Power for its polysilicon plant, have been resolved with a reduction in payments through June 30, 2013. With the delayed start-up of the plant due to financial constraints, previously expected power consumption rates by the plant weren’t realised but the utility still claimed for US$2 million a month in payments, previously agreed. The cash strapped firm will now pay approximately US$800,000 per month.
Plans by Trina Solar to build-out its next-generation cell technology, despite industry conditions have been secured with a structured term loan facility of up to US$100 million dollars with Standard Chartered Bank. With the PV industry suffering from overcapacity, the majority of PV manufacturers are in cash preservation mode and have put a hold on capital spending. The loan will be used exclusively to Trina’s East Campus project, which includes 500MW of cell and module capacity and feature its high-efficiency Honey cell technology.
3W Power, the holding company of AEG Power Solutions increased revenue in 2011 by 39.9% to €428.2 million, compared to €306.0 million in 2010. EBITDA reached €53.1 million compared to a negative €23.9 million in the previous year. Growth was seen in its Renewable Energy Solutions (RES) segment, which reported revenue of €224.0 million compared to €110.2 million in 2010, driven by demand within the solar value chain, from polysilicon plants (power controllers) to solar inverter solutions and monitoring & controls for utility-scale PV power plants.
GoIndustry DoveBid, an asset manager company, has been retained by Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) to handle the disposal of three solar manufacturing plants in Norway. GoIndustry has placed the factories on the global market with a total estimated value of €50 million. REC initially disclosed that it was closing its 500MW capacity wafer plant in Herøya, its 275MW wafer multi-plant in Glomfjord and its 200MW capacity solar cell plant in Narvik last October.
