Still in a restructuring and refinancing phase, designed to make the company more flexible and operate sustainably during dynamic changes in the solar industry, systems integrator, Phoenix Solar reported sales for the second quarter of 2012 as €46.5 million. This constitutes a 57.1% decline when compared to the same period a year ago. The company made a loss of €13.0 million, though refinancing of over €100 million was secured to enable the company to restructure.
Despite a 13% increase in sales for its fiscal third quarter, specialist PV equipment supplier, Amtech Systems has implemented new cost cutting measure to tackle the downturn that has proved to longer and deeper than expected. The cost reductions include voluntary salary reductions by management ranging from 10 to 20% and salary reductions of other corporate staff.
Despite improving business conditions for its US residential and utility-scale businesses that have led to capacity utilization rates topping 90%, SunPower’s management ruled out the need for a capital spending increase. Debottlenecking and new process migrations for all lines at Fab 2 and Fab 3 would negate the need for a new capital equipment spending cycle until some time in the first-half of 2014, which would then require the construction of Fab 4.
Hanwha SolarOne has officially launched its new North American unit, Hanwha SolarEnergy America (HSEA), which will serve customers in the utility and commercial sectors. The company noted that its new North American arm completes the integration of Solar Monkey, a California developer Hanwha SolarOne bought with an initial stake in January 2011. HSEA has developed a project pipeline of 1GW.
The US Export-Import bank signed a declaration of intent (DOI) with the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa. The DOI aims to progress the South African government’s Integrated Resource Plan and the South African Renewable Initiative. The agreement will see the Ex-Im bank provide financing up to US$2 billion worth of US technologies, products and services to South Africa’s energy sector, with a focus on clean-energy development.
The US residential solar lease market remains highly competitive with a new deal struck by SunPower to access US$325 million in new finance from 2-major investment banks, Citi and Credit Suisse. The new financing comes soon after major competitors in the third party leasing market, SunCity and Sunrun received significant new funding from Credit Suisse to the tune of a combined US$300 million in late July, 2012.
Installation of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (Ivanpah SEGS) worth US$2.2 billion is 50% complete, according to an announcement by NRG Energy, Google, BrightSource Energy and construction partner Bechtel.
Tough times across Sharp Corporation’s electronics sectors filtered down into its solar manufacturing arm in its first quarter sales for the current financial year. Overall, Sharp posted quarterly losses of ¥138.4 billion (US$1.76 billion) on net sales of ¥458.6 billion. Sales within its solar cells segment were down 18.2%, compared to the same period in the previous year at ¥41.9 billion (US$534 million), generating an operating loss of ¥6.9 billion (US$57.5 million).
Suntech Power Holdings revealed that in July 2012 it had achieved the milestone of delivering more than 1GW of solar panels to customers in North and South America. The company noted that it is one of the first global solar companies with a 1GW delivery record for the region. Worldwide, Suntech has shipped more than 7GW of its solar panels to over 1,000 customers in more than 80 countries.
