Solar Gard has finished its second Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), which examines the environmental impact of a product from production to disposal . The latest EPD covers 14 more solar control architectural window films, bringing the company’s total number of carbon negative window films to 46.
German-based manufacturer of metallization pastes Heraeus is constructing a new manufacturing site in Taiwan, the company has announced. The production site is expected to commence operation in the last quarter of 2012 and is intended to meet the demand of the Taiwanese market with local production and technical services. Heraeus produces silver pastes for polycrystalline solar cells.
Declining prices whether on the spot market or long-term supply agreements are making business conditions very tough for polysilicon producers, regardless of their market size or purity of the material they produce. According to the latest financial results of Dow Corning, its JV subsidiary, Hemlock Semiconductor expects overcapacity in the sector to continue throughout 2012.
Delayed fourth quarter and full-year results at LDK Solar show the full extent of the challenges facing the integrated PV manufacturer. Having already revised downwards its fourth quarter figures, the company missed revenue guidance and guided first quarter revenue to levels not seen since the second quarter of 2009. Loss from operations for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 was US$531.4 million on the back of heavy write downs across the company, leading to a net loss of US$588.7 million. Revenue reached US$2.15 billion in 2011, compared to US$2.5 billion in 2010.
Meyer Burger Technology advised that it had raised US$121.3 (CHF110 million) in long-term capital through a Swiss Franc dominated straight bond issuance. The bond holds a coupon of 5% payable annually and maturity date of May 24, 2017. Zürcher Kantonalbank, Credit Suisse and UBS Investment Bank collectively offered the bond issue to institutional and private investors.
As part of plans to increase hyperpure polysilicon production to meet customer demand, Wacker has officially started volume production at its latest plant in Nünchritz, Germany. Wacker said it had invested €900 million in the facilities, creating more than 500 new jobs. The 15,000MT polysilicon plant should reach full capacity within the next few weeks, Wacker said.
Poor demand for silver paste, primarily used in solar cell production, was highlighted by Ferro management as a key reason for lower quarterly earnings at Ferro Corporation. The company reported net sales of US$466 million for the three-month period ended March 31, 2012, compared with net sales of US$573 million in the first quarter of 2011.
Following a continued downturn in operating results, Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) will close its 650MW multicrystalline wafer plant at Herøya, Norway by the second quarter of 2012. The closure of the Herøya plant, in the south of the country, will signal the end of all REC’s wafer operations in Norway after the closure of the Glomfjord monocrystalline plant on March 20, 2012.
A one-year, US$70 million R&D and supply project is underway between materials supplier, Heraeus and Yingli Green. Resources are being allocated from Heraeus’ three global technology centres to develop next-generation silver metallization pastes for Yingli’s N-type ‘PANDA’ silicon solar cells.
Further confirmation that overcapacity in polysilicon production will continue to force prices lower comes from a new report from IHS iSuppli. According to the market research firm, total polysilicon production capacity is expected to reach 328,000MT in 2012, an increase of 15% from 285,000MT in 2011. However, this contrasts with expected demand this year of 196,000MT, a decline of 4% from 205,000MT in 2011.
