PV modules and wafers manufacturer ReneSola has announced the establishment of its Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa regional sales headquarters in Singapore.
The Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has approved loan facilities worth R9,668.50 billion (US$980 million) earmarked for 13 solar projects in South Africa. Combined, the projects have a total capacity of 762.6MW.
The sale of Oerlikon Group’s loss-making Oerlikon Solar to Tokyo Electron (TEL) has received regulatory approval from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
SRU Solar and Berlin-based Parabel have jointly completed a 29MW solar farm between the cities of Eisleben Wimmelburg, bringing back to life a 100ha former metal works site.
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.
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.”
The government of Tamil Nadu, India, has committed to generate 3,000MW of solar power by 2015 (1,000MW per year) through its newly launched Solar Energy Policy 2012, according to reports.
The surge in solar activities in Japan is continuing with Tokyo-based Marubeni Corporation announcing plans to create a “mega-solar power business” by building an 81.5MW solar plant in Oita City, Japan.
