Manufacturing

After several years of rapid price declines for conventional crystalline silicon solar modules, CIGS (copper indium gallium selenium) thin-film technology hasn’t been immune from the ‘solar shakout,’ despite its inherent capabilities to provide high conversion efficiency and low-cost production. Solyndra, Odersun, Soltecture, Global Solar Energy, Solibro and MiaSolé are companies that pioneered CIGS adoption but have either failed or now seek new partners to continue operations.

With the 27th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (27th EU PVSEC) just around the corner on September 24-28, the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) has announced a string of high level speakers for its events at this year’s conference.

Updated: After much media speculation that South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group had been in negotiations to acquire PV manufacturer Q-Cells, a deal has been struck according to a brief statement issued late Sunday evening. However, the deal still requires the approval of creditors, which the insolvency administrator Henning Schorisch said would be sought at a meeting on August 29.

On August 23, workers from Siliken’s centre in Rafelbunyol, Valencia, Spain, are today protesting after the solar company presented an ERE (Expediente de Regulación de Empleo) — a Spanish administrative redundancy procedure which employers must comply with — to 100 employees, the CCOO Industry Federation has revealed.

With a debt of ¥1.25 trillion (US$16 billion), Japanese electronics manufacturer Sharp Corporation has been feeling the weight on its shoulders and will submit an asset report to its banks next month in order to identify any flagging businesses it could sell to raise some finance, Reuters revealed.

Cambridge University spin-off Eight19 has revealed the launch of Azuri Technologies Limited, which will be used to develop the company’s Indigo ‘pay-as-you-go’ solar technology for off-grid markets.

Non-governmental organization (NGO), the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), is accusing US thin-film manufacturers of using a loop hole in the Indian government’s renewable energy scheme to “ruin the Indian domestic PV industry”. Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) initiative mandates a domestic content requirement, however, only for crystalline PV and not for thin-film.

Management at Applied Materials spent little time discussing the performance of its Energy and Environmental Solutions (EES) division results, which houses the majority of its solar sector equipment and services to the PV industry. The company reported EES sales in its financial third quarter that were almost flat with the previous quarter at US$77 million. However, new orders decreased significantly to only US$35 million, compared to US$62 million in the prior quarter.

A report by Bloomberg has brought Solyndra back into the spotlight. The now defunct company reached a US$3.5 million settlement with former workers who filed suit against Solyndra, alleging that they had not received adequate layoff notices. The settlement resolves the issue that the company did not give employees 60 days’ notice under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act when it fired most of its workforce on August 31, 2011.

Singulus Technologies reported sales of €43.6 million for the first six months of the year, down from €64.6 million in the same period of 2011. Solar segment equipment sales were 27.5% of revenue in the first half of 2012, or approximately €12 million, down from 33.1% of sales in the prior-year period.