Síle Mc Mahon

Large-scale solar in India was given a showcase last week when Honourable Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, dedicated over 600MW of commissioned solar projects to the nation. The celebration of Indian solar innovation and ambition was delivered to over 10,000 people at the Charanka Solar Park – a 200MW facility in the North Western state of Gujarat, close to the Pakistan border.

A Japanese government panel is said to be on its way to setting a feed-in tariff of ¥42 per kilowatt hour (approximately US$0.51), according to a Reuters report that in turn cited the Nikkei business daily. The new subsidy scheme is to come into play from July and is a response to the global disapproval of the country’s handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis in March 2011.

Situated in Deagu, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province of South Korea, Jurasolar’s new 60MW module manufacturing facility is nearing completion and will be opened in May, according to the company. Equipped with tools including a fully automated PV module manufacturing line from German company JvG Thoma, the factory will produce the company’s ‘JvG Desert Modules’, named to reflect their ability to perform in extremely high temperatures of over 125°C.

Following the retirement of José Villarreal, a member of the board since 2007, First Solar has taken the opportunity to expand its board membership from nine to 11 members. The company has nominated George “Chip” Hambro, former First Solar COO, and Richard “Rick” Chapman, CFO of Walton Enterprises, Inc., to stand for election at its annual stockholder meeting on May 23, the latter as an independent director.

Canadian Solar has established a new reseller program for its products in the EMEA region. The Authorized Reseller Program will allow companies registered with Canadian Solar to offer the company’s solar product range in the region, and will also enable them to avail of further features such as technical product training and professional sales and marketing support.

Activ Solar has completed the EPC phase and begun commissioning of a 31.55MW solar PV plant in Mityaevo, Crimea, the autonomous republic of Ukraine. The ground-mounted plant has been equipped with over 134,000 polycrystalline solar modules and will be operated by Austria-based Activ Solar, which has to date installed over 215MW of solar PV projects in Crimea.

Air Products has completed and brought onstream its hydrogen selenide (H2Se) facility expansion at its electronic specialty materials manufacturing facility in Hometown, PA, USA. The newly expanded high-purity H2Se facility will serve the growing demand from the CIGS market for the compound, which is provided by Air Products to semiconductor and PV customers at more than 99.99% purity levels.

A recent report by market analysts Yole Développement has predicted that the PV equipment and materials markets will drive manufacturing cost reduction, leading to the purchase of in the region of 35GWp of new equipment by 2017. The report, “Crystalline Silicon PV: Technology, Equipment & Materials”, singles out the c-Si sector as facing a period of change whereby the low-efficiency portion of manufacturing capacity will be shut down in order to concentrate on the higher-yielding technologies.

Although the top-ranked companies might not come as a surprise to many, Lux Research’s top 10 module manufacturer rankings provides some interesting figures. The research firm’s Solar Supply Tracker has logged the top 10 module manufacturers by percentage of global module production, and sees First Solar in first place at 7% (2.001GW), Suntech in second at 6.5% (1.866GW) and Yingli Green in third at 5.5% (1.554GW).

AEG Power Solutions, part of parent company 3W Power, has updated its guidance for its financial performance for 2012. The company, which is currently the subject of a friendly takeover bid by Andrem Power, which is itself wholly owned by Nordic Capital Fund VII, expects its revenue to grow to between €430 and €460 million from €428 million in 2011. However, profitability margins are expected to fall as a result of economic factors.