Manufacturing

The Brazilian state of Minas Gerais is to hold an auction for solar energy in August this year requiring a total investment of more than BRL1 billion (US$253 million), according to the state's government.

The “extraordinary amount” of money Germany has spent transitioning away from fossil fuels and nuclear is looking increasingly like an investment in the country’s future competitiveness, according to the chief economist of the US Underwriters’ Laboratory.

According to Taiwan-based market research firm EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce, demand for monocrystalline wafers in China is increasing due to capacity constraints with mainstream multicrystalline wafers.

PV Cycle, a not-for-profit compliance and waste management programme solar PV technology in Europe, has achieved a record recycling rate of 96% for silicon-based PV modules.

Struggling renewables firm SunEdison is making drastic changes to its upstream manufacturing operations as its financial position remains precarious.

Major photovoltaics energy provider, SunPower, has reported another year of flat revenue, primarily due to manufacturing capacity constraints.

Turner Renewable Energy, owned by media moghul Ted Turner, will be one of the new owners of a 20MW thin-film PV plant in the US constructed by Solar Frontier Americas.

Recent reports that the US and India are close to reaching an agreement in the trade dispute over India’s local content rules for solar equipment have been refuted by a top US trade official.

German PV equipment specialist Singulus has cleared the second hurdle in its financial restructuring process.

There is no more doubt that PERC is becoming a mainstream technology in standard industrial solar cell production. The question arising is “what is next?”