The number of workers employed by the German PV industry fell by almost 50% last year, according to figures released on Monday by the German energy and economics ministry.
One of the last remaining a-Si thin-film manufacturing plants in production globally and the last in Germany is to close with the loss of 160 jobs at Masdar PV in Ichterhausen.
PV equipment specialist, Meyer Burger Technology is streamlining its R&D activities at its Roth & Rau subsidiaries technology and product centre in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Germany with the loss of around 120 positions.
Major monocrystalline wafer producer, LONGi Silicon Materials is entering the PV module market to demonstrate and promote the significant cost reductions achieved in monocrytalline wafer production and highlight the performance and life-time yield superiority of monocrystalline products over multicrystalline.
Non-silicon mono wafer costs are plummeting and could challenge the predominance of monocrystalline silicon wafers, according to the head of a leading Chinese wafer producer.
A key topic of debate during SNEC 2014 in Shanghai has been the concern over meeting Chinese government targets for distributed generation (DG), which are becoming seen as increasingly over ambitious.
