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The last 18 months have been the toughest yet for PV manufacturers and equipment and material suppliers. Massive overcapacity and plummeting prices have led to vanishing margins, sequential quarter financial losses and an ever-growing number of companies struggling to stay afloat, exit the market altogether or simply go bankrupt. The term ‘solar shakeout’ has been widely used in the media to characterize current market conditions.
US-based SoloPower is to suspend operations at its US$340 million plant in Portland, Oregon in June, laying off 29 employees.
German module manufacturer asola Solarpower has filed for insolvency but is still open for business.
Suntech Power Holdings European subsidiary, Suntech Power International has gone to a court in its locality in Switzerland to stop bankruptcy proceedings.
Having defaulted on its US$541 million bond, and its main Chinese subsidiary forced into bankruptcy, Suntech Power Holdings shares listed on the New…
The start of 2014 will herald an end to Bosch’s activities in the solar PV industry, the company has announced.
The local court in Amberg, Germany court has appointed Dr Hubert Ampferl, partner of Nuremberg-based law firm Dr Beck & Partner, as supervisor of…
Flexible-CIGS thin-film start-up SoloPower said it would be restructuring its operations which will involve a workforce reduction as it approaches volume…
Bekaert said in its 2012 annual report that it had taken a €117 million (US$153 million) charge on restructuring its solar wafer wire sawing business.
Nanosolar, a US-based CIGS thin-film solar cell and module manufacturer, has confirmed that it cut its workforce last week with media reports citing…
Spanish PV panels producer Innovacion en Alta Tecnologia Solar (Iatso) has filed for insolvency.
Less than six-months after Ferro put its conductive paste business up for grabs, major materials supplier, Heraeus has purchased the business for an…
PV manufacturer Isofoton will draw up a restructuring plan which is expected to impact 380 employees at its Malaga factory.
PV module encapsulant material supplier, STR Holdings hit by the pending loss of its largest customer, First Solar said that its restructuring efforts…
The dire business conditions within the solar wafering sector have forced slurry recycling specialist, SiC Processing to warn of over a €100 million…
Slurry recycling specialist, SiC Processing which is currently in receivership, has warned unsecured creditors to expect low debt recovery due to a…
Continuing with its recently announced restructuring, specialist PV equipment supplier, GT Advanced Technologies has detailed some management changes.
Renewable Energy Corporation ASA (REC) is to stop production of Siemens-based solar grade polysilicon at its Polysilicon I facility in Moses Lake, Washington…
Schott Solar is to transfer to the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems 111 patent families relating to crystalline silicon photovoltaics,…
Two US-based subsidiaries of Spanish PV company Siliken have filed for financial relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.
Updated. Germany’s Sunways has announced an unspecified but “significant” reduction in solar cell manufacturing with the loss of 120 jobs,…
Insolvency proceedings have been officially initiated in the local court of Aachen, Germany against Photon Europe GmbH, publisher of leading PV publications…
Italian PV installer Aion Renewables has announced that its subsidiary Ecoware filed for insolvency this week at the court of Padua, Italy.
Officials from Colorado-based Abound Solar are facing a criminal investigation over possible fraud, it has emerged.
LDK Solar, one of the world’s largest producers of solar wafers, has finalised a deal to sell three solar plants to Henan Xindaxin Materials for…
Solar panel manufacturers need to acquire innovative production equipment in order to cut costs, increase margins, and offer differentiated products.…
Norway-based Renewable Energy Corporation ASA (REC) has revealed that its revenues from continuing operations for the third quarter of 2012 fell by…
Although 35GW of installed PV capacity has been predicted for 2013, inverter manufacturers are set for yet another challenging year with global revenues…
Photovoltaics company Q-Cells SE has been transferred to its new owner, Hanwha Chemical Corporation, saving 80% of the jobs at the troubled firm.
With the US presidential election less than two weeks away, energy subsidies have been a regular blip on the radar during the televised campaign debates.
Production equipment order cancellations and forced shuttering by solar PV manufacturers during 2012 exceeded US$3 billion by the end of Q3’12, according…
Provider of utility scale power conversion solutions, Satcon Technology, has announced that the company and its subsidiaries have filed voluntary petitions…
Billionaire Stefan Quandt’s appearance at Solarwatt may have been timely. Since the restructuring plan developed by the management of Solarwatt and…
In a new twist to both the sagas over Solyndra’s demise and the trade war between the US and China over dumping of solar modules, the bankrupt firm…
Continuing to restructure the company in hope of surviving the solar shakeout, major PV equipment specialist centrotherm photovoltaics has made sweeping…
Having introduced over 20 new conductive paste-based products for the solar sector in the last 18 months the lack of customer adoption and overall weak…
The bankruptcy of Spain-based 3S Soluciones has been announced in the Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE) - the official gazette of the Spanish government.…
Despite several start-up firm failures and an over-hyped sector, the concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) market is forecast to grow significantly over the…
Difficult market conditions and industry-wide overcapacity has led to Elkem Solar, based in Norway, to temporarily suspend production of its solar grade…
Recent earnings reports are confirming that module suppliers have now accepted that previous full-year 2012 shipment forecasts were too optimistic.…
Winding-up procedures are being arranged for two previously announced distressed PV manufacturers, VHF Technologies, better known under its Flexcell…
Concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) start-up, GreenVolts has suddenly suspended operations and is seeking a buyer. In a statement on GreenVolts website,…
Stefan Quandt, BMW board member and one of the richest people in the world, according to the Forbes list of billionaires, will become the majority owner…
Book-to-bill ratios are often overlooked as providing nothing other than an instantaneous snapshot of historic tool shipments and order intake levels.…
As the third quarter of 2012 comes to an end - and many of the leading module suppliers are in the midst of reporting second quarter results and attempting…
Updated: After much media speculation that South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group had been in negotiations to acquire PV manufacturer Q-Cells, a deal…
The CIGS industry can add another notch to the wall as VentureWire reports that AQT Solar has announced its quest to sell of its assets. The CIGS company…
Major equipment supplier to the PV industry, centrotherm photovoltaics has received loans from an unidentified number of banks amounting to approximately…
MiaSolé is cutting its workforce dedicated to manufacturing and operations to preserve cash as a ‘strategic partnership’ deal is expected within…
Sustained operational losses due to weak demand in core end-markets and continued aggressive price declines of conventional crystalline silicon modules…
The successful deployment of renewable energy, including solar, is critical for America’s future energy supply. Recently, a lease financing mechanism…
The German-based PV project developer, SunStrom has filed for bankruptcy, at the Wienberg Dresden court, according to the provisional liquidator HWW…
Reports of thin film’s death have greatly been exaggerated – or so say some in the solar industry despite almost daily evidence piling up against…
Desperate times call for desperate measures, according to the latest PV industry analysis from NPD Solarbuzz. According to the market research firm,…
Amid the investigations and continual reports of US and European PV manufacturers closing their doors, it has been easy to neglect the idea that the…
A year is a long time in the solar industry - and getting shorter almost every week. At last year’s Intersolar NA, Solyndra was still offering…
Blaubeuren, Germany-based Centrotherm has filed for Chapter 11-type bankruptcy protection in Ulm’s district court to start insolvency proceedings.…
As sure as the fog arrives in San Francisco in time for summer, so too does Intersolar North America sweep into town with its hordes of exhibitors,…
Following yesterday’s report that US-based Konarka Technologies is undergoing liquidation proceedings pursuant to Chapter 7 of the US Bankruptcy Code,…
Continuing market constraints and unattainable cost bases have conspired to force Schott Solar’s management to withdraw from c-Si PV manufacturing…
It appears that the next victim of this most ruthless of competitions – the solar shakeout – is CdTe thin-film manufacturer Abound Solar. Another…
For leading c-Si manufacturers, three issues have been influencing $/W cost metrics during the past couple of years: blended silicon cost, non-silicon…
Last week’s SunShot Summit and Technology Forum in Denver, Colorado, promised to muster the “brightest minds in government, industry, and…
A workers meeting held with management of Belgium-based solar cell producer, Photovoltech have led to reports that the company is to close down its…
The founder, member of the management board and co-chief executive officer of centrotherm photovoltaics, Hans Autenrieth has stepped down from his board…
A public auction of Energy Conversion Devices’ (ECD) and its subsidiary United Solar Ovonic’s (USO) solar business assets has been set to…
The solar shakeout hasn’t consumed another victim in the form of German-based PV firm, Solarwatt, according to a spokesperson for the company. During…
Having previously announced a major reorganization of its entire operations, centrotherm photovoltaics, the second largest equipment supplier to the…
Solarwatt from Dresden has succumbed to the solar shakeout, faced with overcapacity, low-price competitors and subsidy cuts that will go bust. On Wednesday,…
Only a few months after Scheuten Solar filed for insolvency, it seems that the company has found a new partner to help bring it back to a more powerful…
As predicted in this PV Tech blog a couple of months ago, Republican presidential campaigners could not resist dragging the Solyndra saga back into…
Despite the continued solar shakeout that has hit thin-film technologies hard, VC funding of next-generation CIGS technology remains robust. A new round…
Reports have emerged that Hanergy Solar Technology is considering the purchase of Solibro, the CIGS thin-film subsidiary of Q-Cells. Insolvency firm…
Failure to secure further funding has forced flexible thin-film manufacturer, Konarka Technologies into bankruptcy. The Chapter 7 bankruptcy via a Massachusetts…
Swiss-based VHF-Technologies, better known under its product branding as Flexcell has stopped production of its flexible thin-film products and reduced…
Swiss silicon thin-film firm, Pramac has been forced to file for insolvency after shareholders rejected management proposals over restructuring the…
The former BP Solar module assembly plant, originally closed in 2009 but resurrected by Silex Systems to provide modules in the Australian market has…
First generation PV thin-film adopters are falling like flies as Berlin-based Inventux files for bankruptcy. Inventux was a customer of Oerlikon Solar…
Solarhybrid Israel, subsidiary of Solarhybrid, recently sold 201MWp of project rights, which it originally bought in January for US$2,391,705, to Summit…
The provisional liquidator of Q-Cells, Henning Shor from insolvency firm HWW Wienberg Wilhelm, said that there has already been both foreign and domestic…
More than one bidder has led to an auction to be held on Tuesday, April 24 for silicon metal specialist, Timminco and its UMG-silicon subsidiary Bécancour…
With approximately US$148 million in cash and investments, coupled to current assets valued at just over US$1.03 billion but debts of equivalent value,…
A subsidiary of MX Group, Solarday has gone into liquidation, according to a brief statement on its website. The company had opened it module assembly…
German PV project developer, Solarhybrid has filed for insolvency in the local court of Arnsberg, Germany. In a brief statement, the company said that…
Despite an 11.9% increase in revenue for 2011, centrotherm photovoltaics reported a preliminary operating loss of €19.8 million on sales of €698.5…
A new trade organization established by First Solar and rival CdTe thin-film module producers and suppliers has been formed to promote and educate on…
Updated: Oerlikon Group’s loss-making Oerlikon Solar, the originator of the turnkey thin-film business model with a-Si and tandem-junction thin-film…
Microsol International, a UAE based module manufacturer has agreed to acquire the majority of operations of insolvent Solon that could secure most of…
Scheuten Solar has officially filed notice that it is suspending payments as it is unable to serve its creditors. The Netherlands based module manufacturer…
The Bankruptcy Court overseeing Solyndra’s insolvency has assigned Jones Lang LaSalle to undertake the sale of its manufacturing plant in Fremont,…
Continued overcapacity and weak demand in the wafering sector has forced Bekaert to reduce wire saw manufacturing capacity with the loss of 1,250 jobs.…
A new and detailed bottom-up analysis of the polysilicon industry by GTM Research further supports growing consensus that polysilicon prices will continue…
The solar PV space, like most industries, has many stories and factoids that are overlooked or underreported among the often cataract-like torrent of…
A concerted effort to increase sales overseas, though not a player in the expanding China market, SMA Solar Technology reported it had claimed back…
Having warned mid-year that global PV equipment spending would shrink significantly in 2012, Solarbuzz has warned that the spending downturn period…
The data giveth and the data taketh away. In the case of a new study conducted by GTM Research for SEIA, the data giveth a surprising, seemingly counterintuitive…
As PV manufacturers prepare for Q2’11 reporting, the need to understand accurate industrywide capacity levels has become essential. Currently, much…
On the back of small 3% decline in PV capital equipment spending in the second quarter of 2011, market research firm, Solarbuzz believes the decline…
News that amorphous thin-film competitors Sunfilm and Sontor are to merge due to the competitive landscape, overcrowded market, and the dominance of…
Market research firm iSuppli Corp. now expects a major decline in the photovoltaics industry in 2009, due to massive overcapacity, plunging prices and…
Greentech Media’s “Surviving the Shakeout” solar industry summit wrapped yesterday at the Kierland Resort on the outskirts of Phoenix,…
