Last week, Linuo Power Group marked the opening of the first stage of its 700MW PV plant in Jinan, China with a stone-laying ceremony. The plant, located in the Shandong province, cost CNY2.5 billion and will help Linuo to achieve an annual production capacity of 1000MW.
Acciona Energy has promoted Daniel Foley to CEO of its Energy North America division. Foley will be charged with using his experience in power marketing and the energy industry to consolidate the company's market position in both wind and solar sectors.
Two of Japan’s leading solar companies are to donate ¥600 million to the relief fund for the Sendai earthquake. Mitsubishi Electric and Kyocera will give ¥500 million and ¥100 million respectively to help victims and the rebuilding process.
Production of polysilcon continues to expand as major suppliers attempt to keep pace with market demand. Wacker Chemie has updated plans to expand its polysilicon production that includes spending €130 million on debottlenecking measures to add 10,000MT more capacity. Wacker noted that it is essentially sold out under supply contracts through 2014.
Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan was said by experts to be the largest to hit the country in over a century. A massive10-metre (33-foot) high tsunami battered coastal towns and cities across the northeast coast with Sendai, north of Tokyo affected the most by the disaster. As for the events' impact on the solar PV supply chain, initial reports indicate the effects have been minimal.
A group of 15 investors have launched a legal challenge to overturn Spain's decision to cut its feed-in tariff. The group, who are thought to have invested more than €4 billion in the Spanish PV industry and includes private equity and infrastructure funds such as Impax Asset Management and Hudson Clean Energy Partners, are appealing the decision under the international Energy Charter Treaty.
Delta Energy Systems’ inverter lines have been certified for compatibility with First Solar’s latest FS-Series 2 and FS-Series 3 thin-film modules. First Solar’s System Design and Application certification covers both Delta’s Solivia 2.5, 3.0, 3.3 and 5.0 EU G3 string inverters and its central inverter line.
PV module encapsulants supplier, STR Holdings posted 2010 sales to the solar sector of US$259.2 million, an increase of 73.4%, compared to sales of US$149.5 million in 2009. Management noted that the increase in sales was due to increased market share gains with its current Tier 1 Chinese customers as well starting to supply a large Asian module manufacturer in the year.
SolFocus has promoted chief operating officer Bob Legendre to president and COO, reporting to CEO Mark Crowley. In his new, expanded position, Legendre will oversee a broad range of activities including manufacturing, supply chain, engineering and deployment. As the COO, Legendre led SolFocus’s engineering organization and finalized SolFocus’s product realization and product certification for deployment in EMEA, Australia and North America.
