By any ‘normal’ metrics, PV thin-film equipment and module producer Hanergy Thin Film Power Group (Hanergy TF) remains in a dire financial position after reporting a non-cash loss of around US$1.58 billion in 2015 and its biggest customer and parent company, Hanergy Holdings and its affiliates failed to make due payments of around US$680 million.
PV and electronics equipment manufacturing and automation specialist Manz AG has decided to keep its turnkey CIGS thin-film technology after almost a year of undertaking a strategic review, due to lack of orders.
Japanese thin-film manufacturer Solar Frontier has heralded a 150MW module supply deal in the US as a major step towards its final decision on building a factory in America.
When Jan Marc Luchies from Tempress Systems (Amtech Systems) took to the stage last week – on the second day of the inaugural PVCellTech conference in Kuala Lumpur on 17 March 2016 – equipment supplier Amtech Systems capitalized on this platform with a press release to highlight a sharp uptick in new order intake for its PV operations over the past two months, taking the company’s solar bookings to approximately US$50 million since October 2015.
In common with every other PV market in the world as it matures, attaining grid parity for the technology is the ultimate goal for Japan. As an electricity market in general, meeting electrical supply with demand will of course become ever-more important.
Japan's PV industry is changing fast. The feed-in tariff has brought about over 30GW of installed capacity, with large-scale solar outnumbering residential by about 10 to one. Ahead of this week's PV Expo in Tokyo, Andy Colthorpe takes a look at some of the issues expected to dominate.
Distressed PV thin-film producer Hanergy Thin Film has finally issued a profit warning and business update that reveals the extent of the dependence on its parent company and its dire financial position.
The forthcoming PV CellTech conference in Malaysia, 16-17 March 2016, is poised to unveil the key issues that will underpin c-Si solar cell manufacturing over the next few years.