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The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued Westinghouse Solar its newest, and fourth, US Patent for its Andalay technology. Patent 7,987,641 was granted to the company on August 2 and is counted amongst the 30 other patents the company has been issued or has pending in Australia, India, Korea and Mexico.
Lincoln Renewable Energy has selected Yingli Green Energy to provide 55,000 YGE-235 series multicrystalline modules for a new 10MW PV power plant in Fairfield Township, Cumberland County, New Jersey. The project, dubbed New Jersey Oak Solar PV Power Plant, is being constructed by Quanta Renewable Energy Services and The Ryan Company under an engineering, procurement and construction services agreement with LRE. The plant is expected to be completed later this year, according to Yingli.
ATS Automation Tooling Systems reported earnings for fiscal Q1 2012 of US$10.5 million, with an 8% operating margin, compared to US$8.5 million in fiscal Q1 2011. Order bookings saw an 85% increase year-over-year to US$157 million; however, revenues from the energy market decreased 29% to US$25 million, when compared to the same period last year.
Juli New Energy and Solarform revealed that Juli’s PV modules would now hold a linear performance guarantee of over 25 years. The updated performance warranty see’s Juli guarantee a minimum 97% actual module power output of the labeled power rating during the first year of operation. Over the next 25 years, the module output will decline by no more than 0.7% annually, allowing the actual power output to be no less than 80% of the labeled power rating.
Andreas Kriegler has been appointed the new Head of Business Unit Photovoltaics at Robert Bürkle. Kriegler will be responsible for development, project planning and sales of photovoltaic laminators for the entire company. He previously worked at automation experts, teamtechnik for 12 years.
Origin Energy, an Australian-based energy retailer, has signed a module supply deal with Trina Solar. The contract calls for Trina Solar to provide approximately 22MW of PV modules over the next 12 months, starting in the third quarter. The modules are intended for residential projects.
China Sunergy will use US$160 million in financing and credit facilities from China Development Bank to boost c-Si cell capacity and pursue market opportunities with the funds under improved working capital. China Development Bank signed the contracts with China Sunergy’s two domestic subsidiaries, China Sunergy (Nanjing) and CEEG (Nanjing) Renewable Energy Co., which was acquired from affiliated company CEEG in November 2010.
Margin pressure would seem to be the only negative force of a weak PV market on Canadian Solar’s financial performance. In the second quarter of 2011, the PV module manufacturer reported increased revenue and shipments that have continued to rise over 2010. Solar module shipments were 287MW, up from 244MW in the first quarter 2011 and 181MW in the second quarter of 2010. Net revenue was US$481.8 million, up 8.7% from US$443.4 million in the first quarter of 2011 and up US46.6% from US$328.7 million in the second quarter of 2010.
Day4 Energy reported revenues of US$23.3 million, a decline from its reported earnings for the Q2 2010, but a US$4.4 million increase from Q1 2011. While the company noted sales of US$2.6 million, which it accredits to its acquisition of ACI ecoTec, it notes that sales numbers did decrease when compared to previous years due to the overall instability that the solar industry has been going through over the past few months. However, Day4 acknowledged that its sales increased over Q1 2011, mainly because of the Italian government’s FiT resolution.
Schott Solar has received a PV module order to supply a pair of projects in Thailand with a cumulative capacity of 16.9MWp. The 9.7MW and 6.2MW sites, located north of Bangkok, are being built by Phoenix Solar Singapore and are scheduled to be completed and activated by the end of the year.
