Manufacturing

French oil major Total has completed its acquisition of Saft, leading battery designer and manufacturer after a successful tender.

After the 630 installation rush, enterprises, industry experts and investors began to think about the next trend for Chinese PV industry. It is predicted by senior staff from an investment company, that 2017’s plant development would be tripartite by the top runners (leading group) projects, distributed systems and poverty alleviating PV programmes.

Indian solar PV manufacturing is beginning to make headway after a significant module capacity increase in the last year. PV Tech caught up with Ivan Saha, president and chief technical officer of India-based manufacturer Vikram Solar for an industry update.

Struggling Hanergy Thin Film Power Group has appointed Lin Qi, currently the executive vice-president and chief operation officer of parent company, Hanergy Holding Group as an executive director.

Leading polysilicon and wafer producer GCL-Poly Energy Holdings has signed a new supply contract with sister PV module manufacturing company, GCL System Integration totalling 110,000,000 wafers through the second-half of 2016.

A forecasted fall in solar PV module prices due to an emergent oversupply in China will aid the Indian solar sector in time for its largest capacity additions set for Q1 2017, according to the latest update from consultancy firm Bridge to India.

Inverter manufacturer KACO New Energy will cut 80 jobs from its German operations as it looks to refocus on overseas markets.

Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Morgan Solar is one of the industry's last remaining concentrated PV firms. It recently appointed Celestica's Mike Andrade as its new CEO, who discussed with PV Tech the place for such technologies, that are traditionally more expensive and harder to scale than conventional PV.

The solar segment is not short of new hires and comings and goings, with solar industry stakeholders responding to the shifts in a dynamic global market. In our inaugural Movers & Shakers segment, PV Tech attempts to bring the industry back to its roots and rounds up key career moves of the last fortnight.

The main event this year at Intersolar North America was the installation demonstration of Beamreach Solar’s new ‘Sprint’ lightweight PV module system for flat commercial rooftops.