Markets & Finance

Robert J. Gillette has been appointed Chief Executive Officer at First Solar, succeeding Mike Ahearn.

Sustainable Energy Technologies has appointed Robert Bucher as its president/CEO, effective Sept. 1. The company says that the former CEO of Adept Technology and Norsat International will guide the launch of its Paralex rooftop solar power system architecture in Europe and North America from its offices in Toronto.

Roger Welser has joined Magnolia Solar as its chief technology officer. He will be responsible for leading the development of next-generation high-performance solar cells using advanced nanostructured materials at the Woburn, MA-based company.

OC Oerlikon has brought in new Delegate of the Board of Directors and acting Chief Executive Officer, Hans Ziegler to replace Dr. Uwe Krüger who has been in the role since May 2007. This change comes amid OC Oerlikon's semiannual results, which report sales and order depletion in the first half of 2009.

GreenVolts, PV technology development and commercialization company has brought in Wayne Miller as Vice President of Engineering to head the product development efforts as the company focuses on further innovation and commercialization of its CPV system.

Solar industry veteran PM Pai has joined global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) as a venture partner. Pai, who has more than 30 years of manufacturing and mass production expertise spanning several industries, will work with NEA's energy technology team. He is already on the boards of two of the VC's portfolio companies, silicon solar-cell manufacturer Suniva and Deeya Energy, an advanced energy storage developer.

Renewable Ventures, the Fotowatio company, has announced the completion of Solar Fund V to finance more than $200 million of new solar energy projects across the United States. The fund's first project is a 2MW solar PV project located in Ft. Collins, Colorado that will sell energy to Colorado State University and renewable energy credits to one of the state's utilities, Xcel Energy.

Silicon Border, the science and technology park located in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico, announces the formation of its advisory board comprised of seasoned political and industry leaders with experience in dealing with issues impacting the Mexico/California border.

SunSi Energies has announced that Mr. Yifeng Song has joined the SunSi Energies team as Director of Business Development. Mr. Song's first directives will consist of assisting with the completion of the acquisition process, directly cooperating with the Trichlorosilane (TCS) production team in China, as well as providing support to clients and investors.

Allora Minerals has been busy, acquiring the remaining assets of OptiSolar, receiving preliminary approval to garner millions of Euro in grants for German projects, and getting shareholder approval to change its name to that of another company whose assets it's buying, EPOD Solar (ESI). The OptiSolar deal will bring the once-promising thin-film PV company's intellectual property and its manufacturing and R&D facilities in Northern California into ESI's portfolio.