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.
Sunways seemed hopeful today that by 2014, and on, it will once again be producing operating profits, thanks to LDK Solar taking over as its new majority shareholder. For its solar modules business, Sunways looks to continue building on its brand and service quality with LDK Solar, while in the solar cells segment, Sunways is expected to play a large role as a technology excellence centre within the LDK Solar Group.
Chinese PV firm Suntech Power Holdings faces more trouble in Italy after an Italian court reportedly filed a lawsuit against the company’s Global Solar Fund (GSF). The lawsuit alleges that the investment fund illegally built solar farms in the country in order to exploit Italy’s subsidies, Reuters has revealed.
Solar Universe Network and Sunrun entered a strategic partnership, which will bring Sunrun’s solar service to more US customers. The partnership will be offered to homeowners in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Oregon.
Westinghouse Solar and CBD Energy have formed a joint venture with an intent to design, engineer, procure and construct commercial PV projects in Italy. Westinghouse Solar will have a 25% stake, with the option to take up to a 50% stake, in the profits from CBD’s commercial project pipeline in Italy in exchange for an investment of US$1.5 million (with an option to invest an additional US$1.5 million).
Canadian Solar advised that the sale of its Canadian Solar 1 installation has been completed with the utility-scale power plant sold to Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners for US$48.4 million. Canadian Solar was the developer, EPC and construction financier for the project, which is built near the town of Napanee. The installation is connected to the grid and uses nearly 50,000 of the company’s CS6M modules.
Higher module shipments on the back of increasing focus on expanding its solar module business and building sales channels supported ReneSola producing better than expected second-quarter 2012 financial results. The company posted US$233 million in sales, up 10.2% from US$211.5 million in the prior quarter.
