Syanne Olson

Schott Solar has completed delivery of over 17,000 of its PTR 70 receivers to Godawari Green Energy.

Ambassador Energy’s Southern California sales team is adding personnel in response to solar repayment programs such as property assessed clean energy (PACE) financing.

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala has joined local and company representatives to inaugurate 44MW of Peruvian PV plants.

From the heart of its R&D centre in Rochester, New York, Natcore Technology scientists have developed what they call the “first black silicon solar cell”.

Phoenix Solar has amended its revenue expectations for its 2012 financial year with revenue expected to drop to between €150 and €170 million (US$194 to US$200 million) for the year.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) approved two amended BrightSource contracts, totaling 1,300,000MWh annually, with Southern California Edison (SCE).

PV Evolution Labs (PVEL) and Also Energy have teamed up in order to bring PVEL customers the ability to access their systems’ testing data online. This will allow customers to track the performance and energy yield, as well as download historical data and generate performance plots, of their system in real time with AlsoEnergy’ s PowerTrack energy management software.

The Wacker Group released its Q3 2012 financial results, which saw the company’s polysilicon business take another hit. Overall, Wacker saw the third quarter generate an EBITA of €204.3 million, 36% less than Q3 2011 and 15% less than Q2 2012. Its polysilicon division posted sales of €269.1 million, down 29% from the same period last year. Wacker notes that its sale and earnings for its polysilicon unit dropped because of continued pressure on prices and high inventory levels in the solar industry.

DayStar Technologies and Ontario, Canada’s, Grasshopper Energy entered into an LOI agreement in which DayStar will buy Grasshopper Energy in, an expected, 30 days. The purchase will be a 100% equity transaction. Grasshopper Energy is known for its turnkey solutions and is said to have one of the largest presences in Ontario. The company has over 100 microFiT contracts awarded to date worth CAN$50 million and additional microFiT and FiT applications exceeding 3,500 projects, which make a potential pipeline worth over CAN$100 million.

SMA Solar Technology issues a rather dire outlook for 2013, noting that because of the large subsidy cuts for PV, and the expected European downturn because of the cuts, the company’s managing board anticipates sales to drop to somewhere between €0.9 billion and €1.3 billion in 2013.