Waaree Energies revealed that it had landed a contract to deliver a 5.75MW turnkey thin-film solar PV plant for Shree Saibaba sugar factory in Latur, Maharashtra, India. No details were given as to a timeline for project completion.
TetraSun has disclosed that its monocrystalline Czochralski (Cz) silicon is now production-ready through the successful completion of its SunShot Initiative PV Incubator grant from the US Department of Energy (DoE). Alongside the DoE grant, since its founding in 2009, TetraSun has raised US$12 million from equity and strategic customer investors. TetraSun's technology turns monocrystalline Cz wafers into high-efficiency cells, in what the company claims as innovative and cost-effective, by making a surface passivation and replacing silver by copper.
While talks continue with potential buyers of insolvent PV manufacturer, Q-Cells, Insolvency administrator Henning Schorisch will also potentially conduct a full restructuring of the company under administration. Q-Cells reported that its creditors met in Dessau-Rosslau to hear about the insolvency proceedings.
AETI's (American Electric Technologies) ISIS 1MW solar inverter has been witness-tested to UL1741 by TÜV of North America. The integration of 1MW of liquid cooled power inverters with a 1MVA transformer and medium voltage switchgear, is aimed at reducing field installation costs. SEMV (Socios Energeticos de Mexico Verde) has selected AETI to a solar project in Mexico. Contract terms were not disclosed.
According to the US Department of Commerce’s latest release of the ‘U.S. Imports of Merchandise’ database, solar-based products from China declined around 45% in May, compared to the same month a year ago. The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) claimed that this decline represented a positive impact of the recent anti-subsidy duties and anti-dumping duties applied to Chinese solar cells as users have therefore become concerned over the risks and uncertainties as well as cost issues of using Chinese modules for installations in the US.
Indonesian State oil and gas company PT Pertamina has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with PT LEN to develop a local PV industry, the company has announced. The current Indonesian solar capacity is 17MW and PT Pertamina hopes to boost the solar industry by producing solar cells locally instead of having to import them. To date, only modules and PV systems are manufactured in Indonesia, cells have to be imported.
Heritage Global Partners and Schneider have entered a partnership for an asset auction, the companies have announced. The two companies have scheduled the auction for AE Polysilicon’s Pennsylvania manufacturing facility for Tuesday, July 31, 2010, beginning at 9am Eastern Time.
Blaubeuren, Germany-based Centrotherm has filed for Chapter 11-type bankruptcy protection in Ulm’s district court to start insolvency proceedings. Centrotherm has a three-month window to restructure before creditors come knocking on its door. The company named insolvency lawyer Tobias Hoefer to the board in a bid to oversee the restructuring. Last month, Hans Autenrieth, member of the management board and co-CEO stepped down from his board position. Jan von Schuckmann replaced him and was appointed chief restructuring officer.
Bloomberg has reported that General Electric (GE) will be putting the construction of its Colorado-based solar panel factory on hold for at least 18 months. Lindsay Theile, GE spokeswoman, noted that sharp price declines and a global oversupply of panels were factors in the company’s decision.
Several reports cite General Electric’s general manger of solar technology operations, Danielle Merfeld, saying that the company has suspended the construction and commercial roll-out of its CdTe thin-film modules due to the current market conditions. GE announced the location of its first thin-film plant in October 2011 which would have a nameplate capacity of 400MW and start commercial shipments in 2013. The facility was at the core of a US$600 million investment in entering the solar industry.
