Power Plants

Predictions that Germany will lose its place as Europe’s largest PV market this year appear to be playing out, with the country registering just over 1GW of new capacity in the first half of 2014.

Dow Corning, majority owner of major polysilicon producer, Hemlock Semiconductor, has posted a 12% increase in first-half year revenue and a net income up 20%, compared to the prior year period.

The French government has confirmed that its new 400MW PV procurement round will be launched in September.

Materials specialist, AkzoNobel is collaborating with the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) at the National University of Singapore in a bid to offer lower-cost ALD and PECVD precursors for aluminium oxide passivation layer processing.

JinkoSolar has secured US$225 million in fresh investment for its solar projects business and has revised its project forecast up from 400 to 600MW.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has lodged charges against a company that it claims sought to dupe investors into backing a non-existent solar plant joint venture.

The new South African subsidiary of module maker Suntech could include local manufacturing, according to the company.

The Chinese government has issued a standardised power purchase agreement (PPA) for large-scale solar power plants.

Leading PV inverter manufacturer, SMA Solar Technology has announced a further round of restructuring with heavy job losses after drastically lowering its revenue forecast for the year.

One of the largest investor-owned utilities in the USA is looking to use a series of measures that are likely to include customer-side energy storage in order to stave off the need for US$1 billion worth of infrastructure investment.