Integrated PV manufacturer SolarWorld will lay-off around 500 temporary manufacturing workers in the fourth quarter of this year due to significant price drops on the world market.
The FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) over the solar industry entering it second major overcapacity cycle is being replaced by a focus on how much overcapacity verses end market demand exists, especially in 2017 and therefore how low will PV module ASP’s go?
Fraunhofer ISE said it was spearheading the largest research project (APV-Resola) in Germany to establish whether the dual use of land for the production of electricity using photovoltaic (PV) modules can be commercially viable with a range of crops grown on the same land.
The US has once again come out on top after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rejected a challenge by India in favour of its domestic content requirements (DCR).
According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) US residential solar installations are expected to increase by 21% in 2016, yet growth in 2017 is expected to be a tepid 0.3%.
The 33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC) has turned away from co-locating with Intersolar Europe in June, 2016 and has returned to a September 2017 slot and be held in Amsterdam.
Solar panel manufacturers that fail to keep up with emerging technology trends will be under tremendous pressure in 2017, according to host of their peers at SPI 2016.