UK-headquartered multicrystalline solar wafer producer PV Crystalox Solar has confirmed plans to completely close its multicrystalline ingot/brick production facilities in Oxford, UK.
PV specialist equipment supplier centrotherm has secured a number of sputtering systems tool orders for two turnkey CIGS thin-film facilities being supplied by equipment and automation specialist Manz for JV customers Shanghai Electric Group and Shenhua Group.
‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JA Solar has announced that its Fab 7 solar cell plant in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province, China had a significant fire incident overnight on July 13, 2017.
SolarWorld Americas the subsidiary of bankrupt integrated PV module manufacturer SolarWorld AG said it would receive a US$6 million cash infusion from its parent company’s financial lenders to continue reduced operations after recent workforce reductions and support its co-petition with bankrupt US rival Suniva in the ITC ‘Section 201’ case.
Taiwan-based cell and module producer Neo Solar Power (NSP) has sold the former solar cell and module assembly plant of DelSolar to specialist semiconductor manufacturer Maxchip Electronics for around NT$1,252 million (US$41.1 million).
Leading PV manufacturing equipment supplier Meyer Burger has secured a CHF 12 million (US$12.4 million) contract to supply integrated PV module manufacturer, REC Group with its DW 288 Series 3 diamond wire cutting platform.
Leading polysilicon and solar wafer producer GCL-Poly Energy Holdings has sold a 10% share in its planned 60,000MT polysilicon plant in Xinjiang, China for around US$22 million (RMB 150 million) to monocrystalline wafer producer Tianjin Zhonghuan Semiconductor Co.
Enel Green Power’s a-Si thin-film module manufacturing subsidiary, 3SUN is hoping to obtain a €14.1 million grant from Italy’s national agency for attracting investment and enterprise development, Invitalia to support the purchase of heterojunction (HJ) solar cell tools to switch production to the higher efficiency silicon technology.
US-Based wafer producer 1366 Technologies said that a small 500kW PV power plant in Hyōgo, Japan is the first commercial usage of its ‘Direct Wafer’ technology outside several test sites in the US, Germany and Japan.