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5N Plus and MCP Group have agreed upon a definitive acquisition agreement wherein 5N Plus will buy virtually all of the outstanding shares of MCP. According to the agreements, MCP’s shares will be bought for a cash consideration of €105.8 million, a promissory note to the vendors of €61.9 million and around 11.4 million common shares of 5N to be issued to the vendors.
A true turnaround year was seen at ReneSola in 2010, having posted a loss (US$71.9 million) in 2009, the integrated PV manufacturer posted net revenues of US$1,205.6 million, an increase of 136.2% from US$510.4 million in 2009.
GT Solar has received an order, from an unnamed manufacturer, for its advanced sapphire crystallization furnaces. The order, which is the fourth of its kind to be received by GT Solar in recent months, is valued at over US$41 million.
Last year saw the gases division of The Linde Group capitalise on the solar industry’s growth by securing supply contracts with over 25 new and pre-existing customers in the thin-film and crystalline silicon manufacturing sectors.
TechPrecision has received an order worth US$1.2 million for its mono-crystalline chambers from a major wafer producer and OEM. This is the third new strategic tier one customer TechPrecision has acquired during the current fiscal year.
With crystalline silicon cell production close to 1GW in 2010, Q-Cells continued to be a major user of bare wafers. However, tight supply and rising prices had caught Q-Cells out in the past, which led to financial losses on the back of restrictive long-term supply contracts that lead to major change in its executive management team.
Applied Materials reports on a new selective emitter solution capable of raising absolute cell efficiencies by as much as 0.5% and unveils its upgraded wire-saw technology featuring high-strength structured wire at the SNEC PV Power Expo, taking place this week in Shanghai. The company also announced that its Precision Wafering Division has shipped its 2000th wire saw to the solar manufacturing industry.
At the SNEC trade show in Shanghai, China, GT Solar International unveiled its next generation silicon tetrachloride (STC) converter for polysilicon production plants that use direct chlorination for hydrogenating STC. The company points out that the new STC converter is primarily for companies utilizing older, direct chlorination polysilicon plants. GT Solar claims that the new converter is an upgrade that will increase production capacity and lower annual operating costs. Each STC converter has the potential to support 2,500 tons of annual polysilicon production.
The Heraeus Photovoltaic Business Unit has started building work on a new factory in Singapore to manufacture silver metallization paste for crystalline solar cells.
With significant ingot and wafer capacity expansions, notably underway in Asia, the demand for slurry recycling is working in tandem. With a claimed 40% market share, SiC Processing is raising €100 million via a bond issue to further expand operations in Asia and other regions.
