Late Friday, November 25, Evergreen Solar issued a statement announcing that senior executives, including CEO, Michael El-Hillow had been sacked with immediate effect on November 21, 2011. The board of directors appointed Christian M. Ehrbar as its new CEO and Paul Kawa as CFO, without providing reasons for the sacking or new appointments. Evergreen Solar is currently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy and recently conducted a sale of some of its core assets to Max Era Properties Limited.
Algonquin Power has entered into a share purchase agreement with EffiSolar Energy to buy all the issued and outstanding shares in Cornwall Solar and its 110MW project pipeline.
Fraunhofer ISE and Azur Space Solar Power advised that the 15 year partnership for the creation of multi-junction solar cells using III-V semiconductors has been extended for another 20 years by the signing of an agreement of cooperation. Fraunhofer and Azur Space plan to work together over the next two decades to create solar cells that will be used for applications based in space.
Orders from Canada and Azerbaijan for Vitrododi solar glass washers are now being built at a Rimas factory in Holland for Rimas PV manufacturing lines. Vitrododi Solar was acquired by Rimas in July, 2011.
Two more projects handed out under India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission are set to miss their financial completion deadline, according to Tarun Kapoor a secretary at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
Photon Energy is stepping up its efforts to break into the expanding Eastern European solar market by building Poland’s largest rooftop array. The 311kW system will be installed on a building owned by water utility Górno?l?skie Przedsi?biorstwo Wodoci?gów (GPW) in the city of in Ruda Slaska and is due to go live in mid-2012.
Google is shutting down its in-house CSP engineering project due to the rapidly falling cost of PV panels. The project, focused on bringing down the cost of heliostats and reducing water usage at CSP plants, was the centerpiece of the RE
Tentative rumours about technology company Apple’s investment in solar power have been partially confirmed. The Guardian said today that a spokeswoman for Apple would only verify that the company was preparing the ground next to its data centre in California, but not whether it has any intention to leave coal behind and turn to solar power.
Third quarter results from Hanwha SolarOne echoed pricing pressure and weak demand, especially from Germany that led to margin pressure, inventory write downs and losses. Hanwha SolarOne reported US$225.4 million in revenue, a decrease of 20.1% from 2Q11 when revenue reached US$277.1 million. The company recorded a non-cash inventory write-down of US$30.6 million and a net loss of US$46.4 million.
AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group’s acquisition of the Mono 2 casting technology last year has paid off. The monocrystalline growth method has been granted a US patent. The patent was granted to AMG IdealCast Solar Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of AMG's Engineering Systems Division. There are four additional core patents still pending.
