Spain-based BIPV firm Unisolar, also known as Soliker, filed for insolvency on September 6, Photon has confirmed after speaking with the general manager of the company.
Having sold its 1MW Uterne PV plant last week, SunPower has announced it has invested in Diamond Energy, a privately-owned, alternative energy project developer and clean electricity retailer headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. SunPower has acquired a minority stake of approximately 42% in Diamond Energy and under terms of the agreement has an option to increase its ownership percentage over time. SunPower will also assume a seat on the company's board of directors.
Swiss electricity, water and gas provider SIG has appointed Sunergis to manage its 44kW PV carport project at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland while Italian carport manufacturer Giulio Barbieri has been selected to supply its PV carport system for the project.
Major Korean PV module manufacturer, SolarPark Korea has had two 60 cell mono-crystalline and three multi-crystalline modules pass the Potential Induced Degradation (PID) test, conducted at Photovoltaic Institute Berlin (PI Berlin) and certified by TÜV-SUD.
Continuing to restructure the company in hope of surviving the solar shakeout, major PV equipment specialist centrotherm photovoltaics has made sweeping changes to its senior management with the notable fall of its enigmatic CTO, Dr. Peter Fath. Current CEO, Robert M. Hartung will also step down from his position, while Peter Augustin will become responsible for core solar cell and module business, amongst other management changes.
The Chinese government’s actions this summer to further raise the country’s PV installation targets appears to have had the desired effect. IMS Research’s latest report provides hope to the Chinese market forecasting a surge in the second half of 2012 with more than 4GW of PV installations to be completed, taking full-year installations to 5GW, even though it experienced a slow start to the year with just 720MW installed in the first half.
Greenwood Energy, the North American renewable energy division of Libra Group, and Biosar Energy, the solar division of Ellaktor Group, have set up a joint venture company called Greenwood Biosar.
In its newly released mergers and acquisition report for Q3 2012, Mercom Capital Group found that venture capital (VC) funding in the solar industry was at its lowest point since 2008 totaling only US$72 million in 14 deals, compared to US$376 million in 32 deals in Q2 2012.
Between January and August 2012, Greece’s PV capacity doubled to 937MW, according to the latest report from the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator S.A. (HEDNO). This comes amid political and economic turmoil in the country.
Weaker than expected demand in key markets of Germany, Italy and UK in the third quarter have led to aleo solar further lowering its revenue expectations for 2012. The module manufacturer had said at the beginning of August that it expected a "surge in sales" especially from the German market in the second-half of the year with stability restored after the feed-in tariff changes.
