As per the modifications to the German Renewable Energy Act last week, effective April 1st, 2012, new feed-in tariff payments for rooftop PV plants smaller than 10kW will be €0.195/kWh (USD$0.261/kWh). The rates for rooftop PV up to 1MW will be €0.165/kWh (USD$0.221/kWh) and rates for ground-mounted and rooftop PV of 1-10MW in size will be €0.135/kWh (USD$0.180/kWh).
Yingli Green Energy and FC Bayern Munich are jointly hosting the FC Bayern Youth Cup finals. The tournament comes after Yingli Green became an official sponsor of the FC Bayern last year, amidst a flurry of Chinese sponsorship in German football clubs. Yingli’s 3 year sponsorship deal with the club will give them marketing rights to areas such as tickets, advertising and public relations. It is hoped the event will help provide underprivileged children with the opportunity to play football and showcase their talents.
Clenergy, PV mounting system manufacturer, has moved its European headquarters to Cologne. The offices were formerly located in Frankfurt but the company decided on the strategic move to Cologne in order to optimize logistics and human resource planning. The company’s European warehouse will also be relocated from Southern Germany to the new location in Cologne.
JinkoSolar Holding has opened new regional headquarters, for its Asia-based operations, in Singapore. The office will manage sales, logistics, financing, project development and customer service for the country. The company noted that with the opening of its new office in Singapore, it now has nine sales and marketing offices located on four continents.
French PV module manufacturer KDG Energy has begun the production of China Sunergy’s modules in France. The two companies have entered a memorandum of understanding in 2011, stating that China Sunergy (CSUN) will provide components for solar modules that KDG Energy will manufacture under CSUN’s brand name. KDG Energy officially commenced production of the modules in mid March 2011.
The German Bundestag has voted in favour of cuts in solar incentives and approved new guidelines for renewable energies. With a majority of votes from the coalition, the law to change regulation regarding renewable energies (17/8877) passed the Bundestag on Thursday.
Air Products has completed and brought onstream its hydrogen selenide (H2Se) facility expansion at its electronic specialty materials manufacturing facility in Hometown, PA, USA. The newly expanded high-purity H2Se facility will serve the growing demand from the CIGS market for the compound, which is provided by Air Products to semiconductor and PV customers at more than 99.99% purity levels.
SAG Solarstrom’s sale of the 48MW Serenissima PV plant in Italy to an unnamed European investor will be concluded shortly, the company has announced. The completion of the sale was delayed by contingent high administrative efforts.
A recent report by market analysts Yole Développement has predicted that the PV equipment and materials markets will drive manufacturing cost reduction, leading to the purchase of in the region of 35GWp of new equipment by 2017. The report, “Crystalline Silicon PV: Technology, Equipment & Materials”, singles out the c-Si sector as facing a period of change whereby the low-efficiency portion of manufacturing capacity will be shut down in order to concentrate on the higher-yielding technologies.
Christopher Associates has announced that it is the US distributer of Tonsan’s sealant dispensing systems, additionally providing support for engineering and application of Tonsan systems for junction boxes and other applications.
