Mark Osborne

'Silicon Module Super League' member Canadian Solar is to allocate around US$401 million in capital expenditures through the end of 2016 to significantly increase in-house wafer, cell and module production capacity and locate new plants in multiple countries.

US residential PV installer RGS Energy continues to battle limited cash issues as sales decline and the company remains loss making.

Major merchant solar cell producer Gintech Energy Corp reported a 0.6% increase in sales for the month of October 2015.

Taiwan-based wafer producer, Sino-American Silicon (SAS), has reported sales in October 2015 of NT$2,335 million (US$71.3 million), down 5.59% on the previous month.

Market research firm IHS has forecasted a slowdown in global solar PV demand growth in 2016 but the market is expected to reach around 65.5GW, compared to 58.7GW forecasted for 2015.

Leading PV manufacturer Trina Solar has set a new world record conversion efficiency for p-type multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells.

Imec and Kaneka are expanding their collaboration on solar cell technology to incorporate life science and thin-film electronics.

PV and electronics equipment manufacturing and automation specialist Manz AG has reported revenue in the first nine months of 2015 of €169 million, in line with lower guidance due to order delays and cancellations of around €140 million.

According to PV Tech’s preliminary analysis of global PV manufacturing expansion plans for the month of October 2015, new announcements reached 1.1GW in relation to thin film, c-Si solar cell and module assembly.

Integrated PV module manufacturer REC Solar has said its third quarter revenue reached a new record of US$234 million and module shipments jumped 101MW to 361MW.