Manufacturing

Thin-film maker Hanergy, which has been the subject of recent press reports over “unusual” share trading, has opened a number of retail stores in its homeland, China.

Solarwatt, a German-based module manufacturer, has officially acquired the French subsidiary of German Centrosolar.

Major merchant solar cell producer Neo Solar Power (NSP) reported a modest decline in revenue for February 2015 due to the shorter working month and Chinese New Year.

Flexible CIGS thin-film producer Ascent Solar Technologies reported 2014 annual revenue of US$5.33 million on net losses of US$43.3 million.

Major tier-one PV manufacturer JinkoSolar has finally said its first major overseas solar cell and module manufacturing facility is based in Penang, Malaysia.

Sweden-based nano-material development firm, Sol Voltaics has claimed a 1-sun record conversion efficiency of 15.3% for a solar cell coated with its gallium-arsenide (GaAs) nanowire array (NWA).

PV manufacturing equipment specialist Smit Ovens has filed for bankruptcy in the Netherlands to restructure its operations.

SolarWorld is planning to add a total of 500MW of monocrystalline ingot production at the former Bosch solar manufacturing facilities in Arnstadt, Germany, and upgrade all 700MW of solar cell production at the site to next-generation PERC (passivated emitter rear cell) technology.

SunEdison, the world’s largest renewable energy developer is to purchase diamond wire saw technology from tool maker Meyer Burger.

Japanese CIS thin-film manufacturer, Solar Frontier, is to acquire the entire US project pipeline of Gestamp Solar in what the company said marked its first step towards becoming a significant global downstream player.