Taking on the task of spreading the word of the UK’s potential in the solar market, Solar Power UK organised the hugely successful conference on October 18-19. The conference, the theme of which was “Enabling the UK Solar Market for 2011,” drew over 450 delegates from all facets of the solar PV industry, including installers, suppliers, manufacturers, investment companies, and members of the media.
Two key executive roles have been assigned at thin-film joint venture, 3Sun. Retaining his position at STMicroelectronics, Andrea Cuomo becomes chairman, while Enel executive, Mauro Curiale, will become 3Sun’s CEO.
Evergreen Solar is aiming to expand its European reach with four new sales managers to service each of its key European regions: Germany, Italy, Spain and France. All the new sales managers will be charged with continuing to broaden the company’s presence in Europe while also maintaining current sales relationships in each region. The new managers will report directly to Thomas Hofmann, Evergreen’s director of sales for Europe.
Andrew Chen has been selected as the successor for the CFO position at Canadian Solar, while Arthur Chien, the company’s previous CFO, will continue with the company as special advisor to the CEO’s office until the end of this year. Chen comes from Shengda Tech where he was chief financial officer from April 2009 until September 2010. He also served as CFO to Trony Solar Holdings between September 2008 and March 2009. Chen’s appointment as CFO for Canadian Solar will begin immediately.
A DEK employee for over 15 years, Ed Rabbitt has been appointed by DEK Solar as its new Solutions Engineer. Rabbitt will be responsible for print process solutions for advanced applications, in addition to supporting new solar installations directly with customers. DEK Solar has recently expanded its equipment manufacturing operations at its Weymouth, UK facility and the launched a new screen printer, dubbed Eclipse to meet growing demand.
In the recently published eighth ‘Annual Photovoltaics Status Report’ the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has reported a ‘massive’ increase in photovoltaics production capacity is underway and that worldwide production capacity for solar cells would exceed 38GW by the end of 2010. The report also notes that production volumes in 2008 increased by 80% as compared to 2007, reaching 7.3GW of potential output with China, Taiwan and Europe all adding significant capacity.
John E. Bryson, Edison International’s former chairman, president and CEO, will be BrightSource Energy’s new chairman of the board of director’s. Bryon holds over 25 years of industry experience in energy generation, transmission, distribution, infrastructure investment and management of energy assets. BrightSource’s founder, Arnold Goldman, who was the previous chair, will continue with the company as chairman emeritus.
Global solar inverter shipments are expected to surpass 23.3 million units by 2014, up by a factor of nine from 2.6 million in 2010, according to a new report from iSuppli Corp. Revenue will subsequently increase to US$8.9 billion in 2014, up from US$5.3 billion in 2010. This would result in solar inverters sales becoming one of the highest-volume ruggedized electronic systems sold, according to report author Greg Sheppard. Despite such soaring demand, the average price per watt for inverters worldwide will decline by 13.5% this year. In particular, Asian suppliers are trying to drive prices down with lower costs, Sheppard noted, even though they have been challenged to deliver bankability.
Azure Power has welcomed Glen Minyard to its team as the new vice president of design and engineering. The company is looking at Minyard to oversee its commercial and off-grid business, deeming him a solar power veteran. He was the founder of Minyard Solar Electric and brings over thirty years of experience in covers design, supply, project management and complete installation of residential and large-scale commercial PV and renewable energy projects.
Once Mossadiq Umedaly, the interim CEO of Enecsys, returns to his original role as executive chairman, Henrik Raunkjaer will step in as the new CEO and board member for the company. The changes will be effective starting November 1, 2010. Raunkjaer has over 24 years’ of experience in the electronics industry, has held several leadership positions in the solar business and earned a BS in electronic engineering.
