In the hotly contested Californian residential solar market, new data compiled by ROTH Capital Partners highlights, amongst many data points, that Tesla’s solar panel supply base and suppliers is undergoing a major transition and that it has been changing for several years.
Building product manufacturer and distributor Gibraltar Industries has signed off on a deal to acquire SolarBOS, a California-based, privately-held provider of electrical balance of systems products for the US PV market.
Smaller companies are finding it increasingly difficult to enter the Indian large-scale solar market and partake in the multi-gigawatts of competitive auctions for PV capacity.
Major PV inverter manufacturer Sungrow Power Supply Co, recently reported a relatively strong rebound in revenue (up 10%) in the first half of 2018 but on a quarterly basis the second quarter sales increased 29% from the previous quarter, indicating that greater dependence on China and the utility-scale market with central inverters, creates a ‘solarcoaster’ ride.
PV and electronics equipment manufacturing and automation specialist Manz AG has secured another advanced payment for CIGS (Copper, Indium, Gallium, DiSelenide) thin-film manufacturing equipment, which is part of a major production order with Chinese partners, the Shanghai Electric Group and the Shenhua Group.
Three more vast projects pairing battery energy storage with utility-scale renewable energy installations are in the pipeline in New South Wales, Australia, through developer CWP Renewables.
Leading PV manufacturing equipment supplier Meyer Burger reported first half year financial results, highlighting strong sales and a return to profitability but weak order intake, due to Chinese government solar policy changes and market uncertainties influenced by USA-China trade conflict.
SolAero Technologies is developing thin-film technology for the US Navy's solar drone programme, as previously explored on PV Tech. In a follow-up piece, Edgar A. Gunther gets more details from the firm and explores the current price points for high-performance cells.
