Overcapacity is continuing to take its toll on PV module prices, according to the latest ‘Solarbuzz Quarterly’ report. Factory gate prices are claimed to be down 33% year-on-year and will fall a further 18% in the fourth quarter of 2011. Solarbuzz warns that module inventory levels could reached almost 22GW by the end of next year if production is not cut drastically. The backdrop for the supply and demand imbalance is installation levels that are proving to be weaker than expected.
SunEdison’s 53.5MW multi-site solar PV project in New Mexico looks set for completion by the end of this year, and has been buoyed by the news that it has secured financing of over US$200 millions from financier Wells Fargo. MEMC subsidiary company SunEdison has now activated three of the five power plants that together make up the 53.5MW total, and the remaining two plants are scheduled for completion before year’s end.
CNPV Solar Power has added to its list of product certifications with the news that it has passed external, independent testing and certification for ammonia and salt mist corrosion resistance to the 2PFG and IEC 61701 standards. The company has already gained TÜV Rheinland certification for similar environmental conditions.
Damage limitation to JinkoSolar’s image and reputation kicked into gear during a hastily arranged telephone conference call to provide its side of the fluoride chemical waste leak at its cell manufacturing facility in Haining City, Zhejiang Province, China. The leak into a local small river sparked demonstrations and damage to offices and vehicles at the plant that had been picked-up by the international mainstream media.
Solar Millennium has claimed that its Kuraymat, Egypt solar-thermal power plant, in operation since June, has been surpassing field performance by 8%. The parabolic trough technology hybrid plant holds an overall 150MW electric capacity and in addition to solar energy, uses natural gas to allow for 24-hour operation.
Dunmore advised of its newly added capacity for the manufacturing of solar backsheets, which incorporate DuPont Photovoltaic Solutions’ Tedlar polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) film. The added capacity aims to give manufacturers a larger supply so that they can increase their production and diminish material inventory fluctuations across the industry.
Softening end-market demand and production overcapacity have led to a significant decline in new PV equipment bookings in the second quarter of 2011, according to SEMI’s latest version of its ‘Worldwide Photovoltaic Equipment Market Statistics Report.’ Equipment billings reached US$2.03 billion for the quarter ended on June 30, 2011, an increase of 17% quarter-over-quarter, after declining 19% in the first quarter. However, bookings, a leading indicator were down 18%, compared with the previous quarter to US$1.79 billion. SEMI said that the book-to-bill ratio dipped below parity to 0.88 for the first time in the past six quarters.
Solar racking and mounting system supplier Silverback Solar has extended its engineered racking system warranty to 20 years. Although the previous warranty duration was not specified, the company has made the decision following 10 years’ real-life testing of the systems’ impervious coatings on the attachment and connector equipment, as well as Allied Tube and Conduit’s Gatorshield steel tubing, which is an integral part of Silverback’s mounting systems.
The industry will soon be bestowed with the largest global survey of PV installers ever conducted. Armed with the aim of providing a comprehensive market analysis – thereby delivering a much-needed accurate commentary of the world’s markets – EuPD Research will question over 750 installation companies from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain, Greece and Belgium to amass data on those countries’ figures from installers’ perspectives.
As the 2011 US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Decathlon readies to officially kick-off its fifth biennial competition, SunPower advised that six of the 19 collegiate teams competing chose the company’s solar panels for their solar homes.
