A highly anticipated deal expected since Total bought a majority share holding in SunPower earlier this year, should be completed in early 2012. SunPower is to acquire module manufacturer, Tenesol from Total for US$165.4 million in cash. Ownership of Total in SunPower will increase to 66% as part of the transaction. SunPower noted that the acquisition would positively affect its financial position in 2012.
Activ Solar has completed Phase IV of its Perovo Solar Power Station, adding a further 20MW to the system’s size. Perovo’s total capacity now stands at 80MW and with ramping up still ongoing – Activ Solar has yet to reveal the full size of the plant – it looks set to be one of the largest PV projects in Europe.
AU Optronics (AUO) has appointed Paul Peng as its new president. Peng will start his new role on January 1, 2012 and is replacing Dr. L. J. Chen, who will now serve as AUO’s president of solar business operation. AUO hopes that its management reshuffle will improve the competitiveness of its products and technologies and in turn profitability.
DNV has acquired 74.3% of KEMA's shares which it claims will create a world-leading consulting and certification company. While DNV becomes the majority shareholder with a 74.3% share, Alliander retains its holding (25.4%) as does Cogas (0.3%). The transaction is subject to the approval of the US, Dutch and German competition authorities.
China Sunergy advised that it had shipped 1.59MW of its solar panels to Emotion Energy, which has partnered with Edison Energy to install solar panels for 117 houses in a residential rooftop project in Faifley, Scotland for the Knowes Housing Association Scotland. The PV project will allow 117 Knowes tenants to partake in the energy generated from the solar panels free of charge for 25 years. The solar project was installed prior to the change in FiT on December 12.
The 38th IEEE Photovoltaics Specialists Conference (PVSC), June 3 – 8, 2012 in Austin, Texas, will be opening its registration on December 26. The event will begin with Austin Solar Day on June 3, 2012 while the remainder of the event will focus on ten technical areas including, fundamentals and new concepts for future technologies, thin-film polycrystalline photovoltaics, III-V and concentrator technologies, crystalline silicon photovoltaics, thin-film silicon-based technologies, OPV, space technologies, characterization methods, PV modules and terrestrial systems and a PV velocity forum.
T-Solar has signed three loan agreements worth US$145 million to finance two PV plants in Peru. The systems, which have a combined capacity of 44MW, are the first large-scale solar installations in Latin America and will cover 206 hectares of land in the Arequipa region of southern Peru.
Ormat Technologies has signed a PPA with Imperial Irrigation District (IID) for 10MW of solar PV energy, making this the first independent PV project for Ormat in the US, which will be located near the Heber geothermal complex in Imperial Valley, California. The companies did not disclose what types of modules would be used in the project, nor did they release the value of the deal.
Flamac, a unit of SIM vzw, advised that it will work with imec to develop new semiconductor materials for solar cell applications. The collaboration will see the companies produce materials that are alternates for the standard CIGS solar cells.
Oerlikon CEO, Andreas Dill has been appointed a member of the SEMI Europe Advisory Board. Dill comes from an engineering background having joined the Swiss company in 1998 and has served in a succession of senior management positions. He is also a board member of Colibrys and Cicor Technology.
