Increased losses posted only a few weeks ago has forced Trina Solar to streamline its business operations to reduce operating costs that include job losses, according to a statement posted on its website. The restructuring comes after reporting a catalogue of woes in its second quarter financial results as well as a management reshuffle and the exit of its CCO. Management said that the key action was to separate its PV module operations from its PV systems business operations.
Stefan Quandt, BMW board member and one of the richest people in the world, according to the Forbes list of billionaires, will become the majority owner of German-based PV module manufacturer, Solarwatt which is currently insolvency proceedings since mid-June.
Dealing with the acute lack of capital spending across the PV supply chain, major equipment supplier Meyer Burger is consolidating its production and technology operations after several years of leading an acquisition trail. The company said it would focus operations at four main production locations and two solar technology centres worldwide.
Sungevity revealed that over the past three months it has welcomed David Dunlap, COO, Steve Atherton, CTO, Walter Conroy, general counsel and Liz Ludwig, VP of corporate business development to its executive management team. Dunlap’s newly created COO position manages the company’s customer-facing operation functions with Dunlap coming to Sungevity after serving as executive VP of operations and client services at Inside Track, an educational services company.
Clean Power Finance and Soligent announced a new partnership, which will see Clean Power Finance’s products offered to Soligent’s network of solar contractors. The companies look to the agreement as being able to help Soligent offer its solar contractors, what they consider to be, the best payment terms in the industry while cutting the cost and time of sales and financing paperwork.
A new initiative is being launched by micro-inverter pioneer, Enphase Energy to boost the use of its technology in commercial PV projects at SPI 2012. The new program includes cash rewards for installers undertaking commercial-scale PV projects.
Boosting its presence in the South Korean markets for RF generation and monitoring systems for the solar photovoltaic, semiconductor, flat panel display and AMOLED industry sectors, MKS Instruments has acquired Plasmart, Inc, based in Daejeon, South Korea, in a cash transaction that wasn’t disclosed.
Solon Energy announced that Anjan Turlapati, co-founder or Microsol, will be replacing Stefan Säuberlich as the company’s CEO. Säuberlich is said to be changing his focus to new tasks, but the company assured that he will remain on staff in a consultant position for the coming months.
Dow Corning, a specialist in silicon-based solar products based in the US, has named Eric Peeters as vice president of its electronic solutions business taking over from James Helwick, who has led Dow Corning’s electronics business since 2010. His appointment became effective on September 1.
More losses were reported by Yingli Green, despite module shipment volumes increasing by 13.7%, to a new historical high on sales of US$488.5 million dollars, down from over US$500 million in the prior quarter. Declining ASPs were behind the losses that climbed to US$90.2 million in the second quarter. The company revised down its PV module shipment target to be in the range of 2.1GW-2.2GW, representing an increase of up to 37.2% year over but significantly down from previous guidance of shipments reaching as much as 2.5GW.
