Former integrated PV manufacturer LDK Solar has entered liquidation proceedings in the Cayman Islands, while its mainland China assets undergo restructuring.
PV Tech’s preliminary analysis of global PV manufacturing capacity expansion announcements for March, 2016 has revealed over 7.3GW of planned future expansions of solar cell and module production.
In February, 2016 SolarCity, the largest residential solar PV installer in the US said in its fourth quarter 2015 earnings call that its ambitious 1GW Buffalo Riverbend manufacturing facility had been impacted by longer than expected equipment lead times, pushing some equipment installs into the second-half of 2016.
PV inverter manufacturer SMA Solar Technology has made a US$20 million investment in module-level power electronics (MLPE) firm, Tigo Energy for a 27% stake in the company.
French renewable energy firm EDF Renewable Energy has signed a 15-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Southern California Edison (SCE) for 111.2MW AC PV power plant.
Leading PV manufacturing equipment supplier Meyer Burger has received a major PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) upgrade order from ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JA Solar.
Leading thin-film producer First Solar is planning a major revamp of its next-generation CdTe modules by introducing a new suite of production lines capable of producing large-area (1.2m x 1.8m) ‘Series 6’ modules with 400W output and significantly lower production costs currently achievable with its smaller form factor modules.
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment specialist SoLayTec, a subsidiary of Amtech Systems has received a number of new tool orders from a range of customers planning p-type PERC, n-type IBC and bi-facial solar cell production in 2016.
By any ‘normal’ metrics, PV thin-film equipment and module producer Hanergy Thin Film Power Group (Hanergy TF) remains in a dire financial position after reporting a non-cash loss of around US$1.58 billion in 2015 and its biggest customer and parent company, Hanergy Holdings and its affiliates failed to make due payments of around US$680 million.
