Semiconductor equipment makers Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron have agreed to terminate plans for a merger after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) warned about loss of competition from the procedure.
SunPower today announced plans to partner with Apple to build two 20MW solar power projects in ABA Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefectures in Sichuan Province, China.
One of Japan’s largest trading companies, Marubeni, which is already involved in both upstream and downstream sectors of PV industry, has entered the domestic market for residential solar.
SKI Corp, Japanese a mobile phone sales agency, has signalled its intent to build a 24MW solar farm in the west of Japan and to borrow ¥8 billion (US$67 million), for the purposes of doing so.
Thin-film maker Hanergy, which has been the subject of recent press reports over “unusual” share trading, has opened a number of retail stores in its homeland, China.
The cost of solar in Japan declined as much as 15% in one year, but a lack of clear policy direction from the government has left a number of businesses with a “pessimistic” outlook of the industry’s future, according to a survey by the Japan Renewable Energy Foundation (JREF).
Japan has confirmed it will make big cuts to the feed-in tariff (FiT) payable for solar, which have been expected for some time, dropping the rate by around 16%, from ¥32 (US$0.27) per kWh to ¥27 per kWh by July.
