‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member Hanwha Q CELLS said it had discontinued its ingot and wafer manufacturing operations in the fourth quarter of 2017, due to the wafer operations being unprofitable.
Leading polysilicon and multicrystalline wafer producer GCL-Poly Energy Holdings is planning to build a 20GW monocrystalline silicon ingot manufacturing facility in Qujing, China.
Leading integrated high-efficiency monocrystalline module manufacturer and ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member LONGi Green Energy Technology set a new solar industry R&D expenditure record in 2017, not only surpassing the two historical leaders, First Solar and SunPower, but also spending more in one year than any PV manufacturer to date.
PV and electronics equipment manufacturing and automation specialist Manz AG has said that a fire at its equipment manufacturing facility in Taiwan had caused some severe damage to parts of the building.
Struggling flexible CIGS thin-film producer Ascent Solar Technologies has shipped a US$300,000 ‘Ultralight’ PV laminate order to a European airship manufacturer that is just short of being half the company’s annual revenue in 2017, which declined over 63% in 2017.
PV CellTech 2018 saw Chief Technology Officers and senior executives from the world's top solar cell manufacturers and equipment suppliers give key indications of which cell technologies will be driving the industry in the coming years.
Softbank Vision Fund (SBVF) and GCL Group holding company have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to launch a US$930 million joint venture in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, primarily to manufacture PV ingots, wafers, solar cells and modules.
Inline solar cell measurement equipment specialist Aurora Solar Technologies (AST) has secured a new Collaborative Research Agreement (CRA) with the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS), which includes the previous work planned on heterojunction (HJ) cells but also creates opportunities in the growing R&D market for solar cell design and qualification.
China headquartered PV thin-film equipment and module producer Hanergy Thin Film Power Group (Hanergy TF) has created a completely new business model in 2017 that provides new industrial parks a selection from a portfolio of a-Si, CIGS, GaAs and c-Si heterojunction (HJ) turnkey production lines to provide local governments access to solar technology and attract other hi-tech companies to new industrial parks.
German-based monocrystalline PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Cell) PV module manufacturer SolarWorld Industries has filed for bankruptcy a second time in less than a year.
