Although still in a business transition period with its shift to greater (60%) PV inverter manufacturing in China, Satcon Technology has reported a strong order book entering 2010, which is first-half year loaded as well as a project pipeline expectation that indicates sales in the second-half of the year will remain strong. The company also reported full-year financial results for 2009 that were approximately 3% down from 2008. Revenue reached US$52.5 million in 2009, compared to US$54.3 million in 2008. Its renewable market revenue was approximately US$47.7 million, equivalent to 162MW, according to the company.
Updated: The largest crystalline silicon PV module manufacturer, Suntech Power Holdings has reported revenue figures for 2009, which were impacted by the decline of average selling price (ASP) for its PV modules. Total net revenues for the year were US$1,693.3 million, compared with US$1,923.5 million in 2008, even though shipments were up 43% compared with 2008. However, margins improved due to lower polysilicon and wafer costs. Gross profit was US$338.8 million and gross margin was 20.0% compared to consolidated gross profit of US$342.9 million and gross margin of 17.8% for the full year 2008. Suntech said it was sold-out through the first half of 2010 and would be boosting capital spending and increasing capacity, specifically for its ‘Pluto’ cell technology based modules.
Privately held manufacturing software provider, Eyelit said that it had won 5 new solar customers in 2009, which helped to see the company post record revenue for the fourth quarter of 2009. Eyelit doe not report financial figure results. The software specialist said that a roll-to-roll thin film, CIGS solar manufacturer became a customer in the fourth quarter, making it 5 new customers from the PV industry in 2009. The others in the sector included a UMG-silicon producer, a concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) manufacturer, a mono- and multi-crystalline silicon wafer producer and a silicon cell manufacturer.
Satcon Technology has won a new order to supplier GCL Solar with 500kW ‘PowerGate’ Plus inverters for three separate solar power plants with a combined power of 38MW. The company had previously won inverter sales for projects reaching a combined 23MW for ground-mounted and largest rooftop projects in China in 2009.
New orders for its diffusion processing systems have pushed Amtech Systems new order flow past US$80 million in its 2010 financial year. Solar orders in its fiscal Q2 reached US$27 million. New orders worth US$8.5 million were recently received from two new customers in Asia and one new customer in Europe.
Product Briefing Outline: Bystronic glass now offers the champ speed-series of glass substrate edge grinders, using experience gained from the automotive industry to provide clean, ground edges, free from cracks and shell defects, boosting yield and productivity in PV module production. The champ speed-series machines are completely vibration-free and can therefore provide the greatest precision in edge grinding.
Citing its strong brand awareness, European sales network, and high-quality solar modules, aleo solar has reported sales of €376.1 million in 2009, up slightly from €360.5 million posted in 2008. EBIT was €16.0 million (€23.8 million in 2008), while EBIT margin was 4.3% (6.6 percent in 2008).
Mitsubishi Electric has said that it has completed construction of PV Cell Plant #2, a 50MW solar cell production facility at its Nakatsugawa Works Iida Factory in Nagano Prefecture. When ramped in 2011, the new plant will give Mitsubishi an annual capacity of 270MW. The company noted that the new facility will also produce monocrystalline-silicon cells and start production by March 2011.
Following-on from securing Advanced Green Technologies as a distributor of its rooftop CIGS technology, Solyndra has now tapped another Uni-Solar distributor in the name of California-based firm DC Power Systems. As with the AGT deal, no commercial details were provided by Solyndra.
Renewed wafer capacity expansion plans at some of the major Asia-based PV manufacturers have led directly to new orders for GT Solar’s ingot growth furnaces. The company noted that it has received new orders worth more than US$200 million for its ‘DSS450’ furnaces and ancillary equipment and services. One China based customer placed a follow-on order worth US$137 million. Other orders came from Tianwei New Energy, Phoenix Photovoltaic Technology, Yingli Green Energy, JA Solar, Sino-American Silicon Products (SAS), and one other unidentified customer.
