Struggling US-headquartered solar PV encapsulant producer STR Holdings foray into recapturing market share by producing in China has come to an end with the closure of its manufacturing operations in the country.
PV and electronics equipment manufacturing and automation specialist Manz AG said it expected to generate revenue of at least €350 million in 2017, including significantly improved and positive EBIT as it starts execution of its large CIGS thin-film orders.
Specialist solar PV equipment supplier centrotherm International has reported first half 2017 photovoltaics and semiconductor segment equipment order backlog of nearly €141 million as well as securing CIGS thin-film tool orders from Manz for turnkey line projects in China.
Nanoelectronics research centre imec has taken a perovskite/silicon tandem mini-module-on-cell stack to a record 23.9% conversion efficiency, significantly exceeding its 20.2% efficiency figures reported in 2016.
Leading thin-film PV manufacturer First Solar raised both shipments and revenue expectations for 2017 after reporting net sales of US$623 million in the second quarter of 2017, down from US$892 million in the previous quarter.
According to the Financial Times, Hanergy Holding Group plans to build a 300MW CIGS thin-film production plant in partnership with the local government Datong City and Datong Coal Mine Group as part of a wider initiative on developing a solar industry development cluster.
Leading ‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JinkoSolar has started a collaboration with Greatcell Solar, formerly Dyesol and the Nanyang Technology University (NTU) in Singapore on perovskite solar cells.
Specialist PV manufacturing equipment supplier Singulus Technologies has secured a new follow-on order with an unidentified customer in Germany for several CIGS thin-film sputtering tools.
PV specialist equipment supplier centrotherm has secured a number of sputtering systems tool orders for two turnkey CIGS thin-film facilities being supplied by equipment and automation specialist Manz for JV customers Shanghai Electric Group and Shenhua Group.
