Schott North America has appointed Linda Mayer as its new president and CEO. Mayer became the first woman to head up Schott’s North American subsidiary when she started the role on April 1 and succeeds Gerald Fine, who became a company director and joined its North American advisory board in January.
Despite the latest report by the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) advising that the feed-in tariff rates in Australia’s Capital Territory (ACT) need to be reduced, the Territory’s Minister for Energy, Simon Corbell, said the rates would remain unchanged.
Spain’s Ministry for Industry has approved 923 new solar projects for Q1 2011, all of which will benefit from the current feed-in tariff rates. The 116MW of new installations have been endorsed just in time to avoid the government’s subsidy reductions that come into play from Q2.
Alstom will invest a further US$75 million in BrightSource Energy, adding to its original commitment of US$55 million in May 2010. The companies signed a partnership agreement in August 2010 to provide fully integrated solar thermal power plants around the world.
Capital Dynamics and Tangent Energy Solutions have signed a joint development agreement, which will see the two companies working together on commercial-scale solar energy projects throughout the United States. Under the agreement, Capital Dynamics will arrange the funding necessary to build, own and operate existing and future solar projects developed by Tangent.
Although there were no specifics mentioned in the financial forecast for 2011 provided by Q-Cells as it announced full year financial results, sales are set to be at around the same level as last year. As previously reported, Q-Cells sales increased by 70% to €1.35 billion in 2010. In its annual report, 2011 sales guidance is between €1.3 billion and €1.5 billion.
Dr. Simon Bransfield-Garth has been selected by Eight19, an organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology developer, as the company’s first chief executive officer. His appointment comes after a September 2010, US$7.4 million investment from the Carbon Trust and French chemical company Rhodia for the commercialization of OPV technology that will be created at Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory; to which Eight19 is closely associated.
Coming off the strong year that was 2010 in the global solar photovoltaic world, Solarbuzz’s Quarterly report has countered that 2011 may be a rockier road. The research company is estimating that Germany’s first quarter 2011 end-market demand for solar PV has been performing at less than 50% of what it was in the first quarter of 2010 and maintains that even though module manufacturers worldwide have been reducing prices, the market has yet to feel a positive effect.
In releasing 2010 financial results this week, centrotherm photovoltaics achieved record results, dominated by revenue generation in its Solar Cell & Module segment, while revenue from its Silicon & Wafer segment and Thin Film Module segment declined compared to 2009. Group revenue reached €624.2 million, a 22.6% increase over revenue of €509.1 million in 2009. Solar Cell & Module segment revenue reached €404.5 million, up 68.6% compared to the previous year and represented 64.8% share of total revenue.
China Sunergy saw its revenues increase sequentially and year over year, while its quarterly shipments came up a bit short of guidance. The company’s results reflect the shift in focus to in-house module manufacturing that occurred in November 2010, following the acquisitions of CEEG (Shanghai) Solar Science & Technology and CEEG (Nanjing) New Energy.
