Syanne Olson

Belectric advised that the deal to acquire Konarka Technologies has been completed, with an agreement reached between the two companies. Konarka Technologies applied for insolvency earlier this year and began negotiations with several investors. Alexander Kubusch, preliminary insolvency administrator from Curator, commented, “…our talks have now reached a successful conclusion. Of the many interested parties, we ultimately opted for Belectric Holding, because this company not only offered an ideal solution to the issue of business operations but also went a long way toward upholding the interests of creditors.”

ET Solar Group announced that it has signed an MOU with EnergiMidt under which is will be the Danish company’s major PV module supplier. The MOU forms the strategic tie between the two companies and will be prominently utilized for EnergiMidt’s 2013 rooftop PV project requirements.

Bloomberg has reported that JFE Holdings was awarded a contract from Mitsui & Co. and Tokio Marine Asset Management, which will see the company build three solar plants in Japan through subsidiaries. Four of JFE Steel’s units will provide for the Japanese solar plants with a combined 8.3MW capacity.

First Solar noted that, in its opinion, Australia is four years behind the US in the development of large solar farms. In a report by Bloomberg BusinessWeek, it was reported that the company is looking to help Australia build up its solar industry, specifically with a 10MW project that First Solar is partnering on with General Electric.

Mondragon Assembly launched their new Tabber & Stringer TS 1200 Plus tool. The technology has a NET capacity of 1300 solar cells soldered per hour. The TS1200 uses an infrared light technology soldering process, which is said to offer easy maintenance, model change and diagnosis. Further, Mondragon Assembly stated that it has the best cell loading autonomy and has greatly lessened installed power and air consumption.

Yingli Green Energy Holding’s acted as the exclusive PV module supplier for what is being called the largest solar plant in Latin America to date. The company delivered 40MW of its PV modules for the project, which is being developed by Gestamp Solar and Solarpack in collaboration with other local companies.

China Sunergy and Japanese conglomerate INFiNi Group advised that they had signed a sales contract, which will see China Sunergy provide 1.65MW of its solar modules to INFiNi. The solar modules, slated to be shipped by the end of the month, will be installed in Okayama First Solar Plant. This is the first ground-mounted solar project for INFiNi.

Canadian Solar has teamed up with US roofing company PetersenDean in order to offer a new roofing program. PetersenDean has initiated its own solar division and will use it to promote the program. No details were given by the companies entailing what the program or the partnership will specifically offer. However, PetersenDean did note that the program will kick-off at Santana Row, October 19-21.

Emcore announced that ATK had awarded it with a contract to supply its ZTJ triple-junction solar cells for use in the AMOS-6 commercial telecommunications satellite mission. The satellite has plans to be launched in early 2015 and will see Emcore’s products used to power the AMOS-6 spacecraft manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

Through a subsidiary, S.A.G. Solarstrom will be partnering with Valsolar 2006 and Cavalum SGPS to develop and construct four PV plants in Badajoz, Spain (in the region of Extremadura), as part of their newly developed joint venture. The plants will have a total output of around 440MWp with the project holding a total investment volume in the three-digit million range.