Manz has terminated the contract of its chief operating officer Volker Renz by mutual agreement. The decision stems from a difference of opinion between Renz and the management board over the future direction of the company and is effective from September 30.
Solar module encapsulant materials specialist, Solutia has guided lower revenue for the third quarter on the back of weaker than expected demand across its served markets including PV module manufacturing. Despite fallen module prices, PV installations have not rebounded to the degree envisioned and overcapacity remains an issue, reducing material demand.
Canadian Solar has furthered its foothold in the US market with the opening of its second warehouse facility located in Port Elizabeth, New Jersey. The facility adds PV module storage capacity for the company for the support of its growing customer demands and uses solar energy from its own PV rooftop system. Located within two miles from the port, the facilities location is expected to diminish drayage costs from port to warehouse. The first shipment of modules is anticipated to arrive mid-month.
Upsolar’s novel solar module business model has been taken notice of by a growing number of people as it received a Solar Industry Award in the ‘Module Manufacturing Innovation’ category during an offsite event in Hamburg during EU PVSEC last week. Receiving the award from Solar International’s editor, David Ridsdale was Upsolar’s CEO, Zhe Jiang, recently video interviewed by PV-Tech during Intersolar Europe in June.
Often billed as ‘quasi-mono’ ingot casting, whereby the lower-cost multicrystalline ingot process provides higher-quality, mono-like characteristics without the associated higher production costs would seem to be getting closer to commercial acceptance. GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has announced that it expects to begin taking orders for its new DSS-based ‘MonoCast’ systems in October this year, with initial lead times for commercial deliveries of three months.
SolarEdge Technologies and Italian distributor Tecno Spot have announced a partnership that will see SolarEdge’s solar power harvesting solutions offered and delivered throughout Italy. Under the signed deal SolarEdge’s module-integrated power optimizers, solar invertors and monitoring tool will be distributed by Tecno Spot with the deal aiming to allow installers and system owners a better solar system design and ultimately a faster return on investment.
Stuart Stott will be bringing his experience developing large-scale power projects and his ability to create industry partnerships to his new role as Spire’s VP of solar systems; a role which will see him manage the expanding solar systems unit for the company. Stott comes to Spire from Public Service Enterprise Group where he served as the global and renewable category manager.
Emcore has been awarded a lucrative contract by Mitsubishi Electric to build, test and deliver high-efficiency radiation-hard solar cells for four telecommunications satellites.
Emmvee, DelSolar and Jurawatt are the latest companies to announce their solar modules will be stamped “Made in Europe” and eligible for a 10% premium over normal Italian feed-in tariff rates.
PV systems integrator, Phoenix Solar is using First Solar’s CdTe thin film modules on a 1.7MW project in Italy for an independent power producer, while a 1MW plant near Rome will use CIGS thin film modules from MiaSolé. The project is for an unidentified Italian investor, according to Phoenix Solar.
