Power Plants

The difficult solar market in the last quarter of 2011, led Elkem Solar to suspend operations at its plant in Kristiansand, Norway. However, the company has advised that full production has been restored due to an increase in orders for Elkem Solar Silicon.

Aide Solar has multiplied its module portfolio with the release of its Quasi-mono module line, which is comprised of 21 additional modules. The new line is available in 60 and 72 cell designs, with power ratings from 230 to 320W. The company noted that the new modules, which it states have up to a 4% higher conversion efficiency at the module level than traditional polycrystalline, have completed UL certification and are available for release in the US market.

Solar IPP Sonnedix has announced the acquisition of a 5.4MW ground mounted facility in France from Element Power Solar. Fully operational since February 2011, the plant is located in St Martin Lalande, near Carcassonne and expected to generate in excess of 6,000MWh per annum.

Citing further pricing pressures in the fourth quarter of 2011, LDK Solar has revised down fourth quarter financial guidance and warned of further inventory write downs, expected to be from its polysilicon production operations. The company has already made several downward amendments to its expected quarterly results in 2011, resulting in excess of US$1 billion wiped-off expected revenue and over 1GW in expected wafer shipments alone.

As revealed in Hanwha SolarOne’s recent quarterly financial conference call, the PV module manufacturer is moving downstream to become a project developer and financier. As part of those business changes the company has formed a joint venture with project developer S.A.G. Solarstrom to initially build-out 20MWp of rooftop projects - mainly in Northern Italy - that are expected to be completed by the end of June 2012.

SolarBridge Technologies and NESL-USA have partnered in order to provide an AC module system using SolarBridge’s microinverter. The module is backed by an end-to-end 25-year warranty. The NESL AC module system uses SolarBridge’s Pantheon microinverter in the pre-assembled panel, with the company offering its AC module system up to 250W per panel.

Against a backdrop of many peers reporting lower fourth quarter shipments when compared to the previous quarter, ReneSola held its ground, exceeding shipment guidance for solar wafers and modules. The company reported 2011 revenue higher than guided at US$985.3 million but 18.3% below 2010 net revenue of US$1,205.6 million. Total solar wafer and module shipments in 2011 reached a record 1,294.8 MW, exceeding prior guidance and an increase of 9.5% from 1,182.8 MW for the full year 2010. However, management guided a significant increase in solar wafer and module shipments in 2012 to be in the range of 1.8GW to 2.0GW. Emphasis was placed on module shipments increasing as well as doubling capacity to 1GW.

Volker Böhm, insolvency administrator of the bankrupt Solar Millennium in Erlangen, has sold PV Power Holding shares to Bavaria-based Schoeller Renewables. Solar Millennium held 50% in PV Power Holding, a developer of PV projects in Italy.

The US Department of Commerce has once again postponed the deadline for issuing a preliminary ruling on SolarWorld’s anti-dumping arraignments against Chinese solar manufacturers. May 16 has been earmarked for the hearing, with March 19 set for a preliminary ruling.

Solar Power Technologies (SPT) has announced that its Clarity solar monitoring system is ETL-certified and will be listed in the Intertek database of certified products, for use in the USA and Canada.