Companies

Key manufacturing and R&D assets of bankrupt German integrated PV module manufacturer SolarWorld AG have been acquired by its former founder and chairman, Dr. Ing. Eh Frank Asbeck.

US residential solar PV and energy storage installer Sunrun said it reached the milestone of 1GW of cumulative solar installations in the second quarter of 2017, after 10 years of business operations.

ContourGlobal has agreed to acquire around 20MW of operational solar PV plants in Italy from ErgyCapital for €68 million (US$80.7 million).

Specialist solar PV equipment supplier centrotherm has warned that it is unlikely to be profitable in 2017, due to the loss of an arbitration case against a cancelled €290 million integrated (wafer/cell/module) plant in Algeria.

BayWa r.e. the renewable energies business unit of diversified German company BayWa has significantly increased revenue in the first half of 2017, having developed and sold PV power plants and increased sales of PV modules and inverters by around 50%, compared to the prior year period.

PV inverter manufacturer SolarEdge Technologies has reported another quarter of record revenue and shipments on strong demand from key markets such as the US and Europe. The company also guided revenue much higher for the third quarter of 2017.

Having just completed its first ‘Solar Roof’ tile system installations in the US, Tesla said in reporting second quarter 2017 financial results that production of the roofing tiles would not enter mass production at its Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo, New York until the end of 2017.

Downstream solar firm Conergy Asia has been acquired by two private equity funds, Tennenbaum Capital Partners (TCP) and Goldman Sachs BDC (GSBD).

Despite running at full-capacity, US-headquartered high-efficiency PV module producer SunPower Corp has lowered its full-year revenue guidance as losses mount and margins compress across its utility, commercial and residential markets.

US-headquartered PV manufacturers SunPower and First Solar are expected to collectively sell their stakes in their joint venture yieldco, 8point3 Energy Partners.