PV modules and wafers manufacturer ReneSola has announced the establishment of its Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa regional sales headquarters in Singapore.
The sale of Oerlikon Group’s loss-making Oerlikon Solar to Tokyo Electron (TEL) has received regulatory approval from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
Belectric advised that the deal to acquire Konarka Technologies has been completed, with an agreement reached between the two companies. Konarka Technologies applied for insolvency earlier this year and began negotiations with several investors. Alexander Kubusch, preliminary insolvency administrator from Curator, commented, “…our talks have now reached a successful conclusion. Of the many interested parties, we ultimately opted for Belectric Holding, because this company not only offered an ideal solution to the issue of business operations but also went a long way toward upholding the interests of creditors.”
SunPower has announced plans to restructure its Fab 2 cell manufacturing plant in the Philippines. The company’s Fab 1 facility was shuttered in April this year with some equipment transferred from there to Fab 2, to reduce manufacturing constraints during the second quarter.
Major PV equipment supplier, centrotherm photovoltaics has submitted its reorganization plans to the insolvency court in Ulm, Germany. Although the company did not provide details on what those plans would be, the company said in a statement that it had now entered a critical phase in its insolvency proceedings that also need creditor approval. Both its subsidiaries, centrotherm thermal solutions and centrotherm SiTec have also filed plans with the court separately.
Emcore announced that ATK had awarded it with a contract to supply its ZTJ triple-junction solar cells for use in the AMOS-6 commercial telecommunications satellite mission. The satellite has plans to be launched in early 2015 and will see Emcore’s products used to power the AMOS-6 spacecraft manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).
Continuing to restructure the company in hope of surviving the solar shakeout, major PV equipment specialist centrotherm photovoltaics has made sweeping changes to its senior management with the notable fall of its enigmatic CTO, Dr. Peter Fath. Current CEO, Robert M. Hartung will also step down from his position, while Peter Augustin will become responsible for core solar cell and module business, amongst other management changes.
In its newly released mergers and acquisition report for Q3 2012, Mercom Capital Group found that venture capital (VC) funding in the solar industry was at its lowest point since 2008 totaling only US$72 million in 14 deals, compared to US$376 million in 32 deals in Q2 2012.
