Americas

SolarWorld has confirmed it will lay off 100 people from its plant in Hillsboro, Oregon.

GE Ventures, part of global power equipment giant General Electric, has taken part in a US$15 million equity investment in leading US solar rooftop installer Sungevity.

PV equipment specialist, Spire Corporation, has been delisted from the NASDAQ stock exchange after failing to restore its share price to the US$1.00 per share minimum after 360 days.

The gulf in confidence separating the downstream and upstream solar markets continues to grow as investments in third party lease companies continue to boom, according to second quarter data released by the Cleantech Group yesterday.

Module manufacturer Canadian Solar’s project development subsidiary has sold a 10MW solar plant to energy provider TransCanada Corporation.

Silicon Valley giant Apple is planning a 20MW solar installation to power a new data centre the company is building in Nevada.

US-based ultra-thin silicon wafer start-up Crystal Solar is planning to complete pilot production of its ‘Epi Thin-Silicon’ technology this year with volume production targeted sometime in 2014.

Canadian Solar is to build a new PV module assembly plant to support the build-out of Samsung’s PV project pipeline in Ontario, Canada.

One of the first and most highly respected financial research analysts covering the PV sector, Jesse Pichel, has joined ROTH Capital Partners as managing director, Cleantech Investment Banking.

EPC firm Gehrlicher Solar’s American subsidiary has been awarded a five-year preferred PV supplier contract with the US government.