Manufacturing

PV and electronics equipment manufacturing and automation specialist Manz AG has finally secured the largest equipment order in the history of the company after securing orders for two turnkey CIGS production lines totalling 350MW nameplate capacity with China-based Shanghai Electric Group and Shenhua Group.

Li Hejun majority shareholder in PV thin-film equipment and module producer Hanergy Thin Film Power Group (Hanergy TF), via parent company Hanergy Holding Group is set to be banned from being a director, directly or indirectly in the any corporation for a certain period in Hong Kong.

Southern Company-owned Gulf Power has teamed with Coronal Energy, powered by Panasonic, to develop a 120MW PV portfolio at military bases in Florida.

According to the ongoing analysis of global PV manufacturing capacity expansions by PV Tech, high-efficiency solar cell migrations, whether monocrystalline or multicrystalline with PERC (Passivated Emitter Rear Contact) and N-type mono heterojunction (HJ) have been gaining strong momentum since 2015.

SPONSORED: Electrical contact manufacturer Multi-Contact is to re-brand as Stäubli Electrical Connectors effective immediately.

Germany’s Astroenergy has received an import licence from the Turkish Ministry of Economics to import 100MW of modules for use in Turkish PV projects.

China-based integrated monocrystalline PV producer, Solargiga Energy Holdings has reported unaudited shipments and revenue for 2016, which highlights only a small year-on-year revenue gain, despite product shipments increasing 34% as ASP declines worsened in the fourth quarter of the year.

The lack of information in a joint press release from Tesla and Panasonic, confirming a solar cell manufacturing partnership at the SolarCity/Silevo 1GW Buffalo fab in New York State was not a surprise, especially considering it merely rubber stamped an MOU previously announced that was only subject to the successful acquisition by Tesla of SolarCity.

Subsidies for Indian cell and module manufacturers are being hampered by delays, as shown by data from the Department for Electronics and Information Technology.

Aurora Solar Technologies has introduced an enhanced version of its ‘Decima’ inline measurement system for quality control of bi-facial solar cells during production. ‘Decima Gemini’ consists of a specialized pair of Decima CD measurement heads that enables the sheet resistance of the wafers' back-surface field and emitter to be measured accurately and simultaneously.