Mark Osborne

R&D centre, Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) has officially opened its module development and testing laboratory the CleanTech Park in Singapore.

PV module manufacturer, SolarWorld, has received shareholder approval to raise additional capital.

Polysilicon producer, REC Silicon reported second quarter revenues of US$126.8 million, compared to US$113.3 million in the previous quarter, due to higher demand for fluidised bed reactor-based granular polysilicon and a 4% increase in selling prices.

PV project developer, SPI Solar, has completed its private placement of newly issued shares that raised a total of US$21.75 million in new funding.

Shunfeng Photovoltaic International has postponed a large stock share issue announced in May 2014 due to recent volatility on international and Hong Kong stock markets.

Solar silicon materials producer, Silicor Materials is to establish a 19,000MT plant in Iceland to convert metallurgical-grade silicon (MG-Si) feedstock to purified solar grade silicon that it claims can be produced at US$9/kg.

GCL-Poly subsidiary, Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon Technology Development, is to supply silicon tetrachloride, a byproduct of polysilicon production to a new joint venture between Evonik Industries and GCL-Poly Energy Holdings that will produce fumed silica and ultra-pure silicon tetrachloride.

The largest merchant solar cell producer, Neo Solar Power (NSP), has raised approximately US$120 million in a bond issue.

Sharp Corporation is exiting its a-Si thin-film joint venture in Europe with Enel at a cost of around US$141 million.

Major PV energy provider, First Solar, has cancelled long-standing plans to build a 2GW PV power plant near Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, according to reports.