Manufacturing

Korean polysilicon producer, OCI Company has reported a 17% increase in polysilicon sales in 2014 as its plants run at full capacity.

Waaree Energies, one of India’s largest PV module manufacturers, is significantly adding capacity to meet demand. Having already expanded capacity to 500MW it now plans to double that to 1GW over the next four months.

The director of the US Department of Energy’s (DoE) solar cost cutting programme has hailed the “phenomenal jobs growth rate” that the US solar industry has enjoyed in recent times.

PV equipment specialist Singulus Technologies said it had received contractually agreed payments for CIGS thin-film equipment believed to be for Hanergy’s planned capacity expansions in China.

After a strong recovery in solar cell shipments at the end of 2014, Taiwan-based cell producer, Gintech Energy reported a 29.8% month-on-month sales decline for January, 2015.

The largest merchant solar cell producer, Neo Solar Power (NSP) reported a dramatic drop in sales for January 2015.

Hanwha SolarOne has completed the acquisition of Hanwha Q CELLS.

First Solar has announced it has set yet another world record for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) PV research cell conversion efficiency, achieving 21.5% efficiency certified at the Newport Corporation's Technology and Applications Center (TAC) PV Lab.

Insolvent PV equipment and wet processing specialist, RENA GmbH has been acquired by Swiss private equity firm, Capvis for an undisclosed sum.

Germany-based OPV substrate manufacturer, Heliatek, has signed a business development agreement with Singapore-based vTrium Energy to grow its market in the region.