In direct response to its high order volumes, centrotherm photovoltaics is investing in an expansion of its Blaubeuren, Germany headquarters. The current 247,569-square-foot facility’s area will be increased to 333,681 square feet with a double-digit million euro price tag. Production at Blaubeuren includes the manufacturing of tube furnaces for phosphorous diffusion and batch-type systems for anti-reflective coating of solar cells.
Eaga has signed a £300-million equity and debt financing agreement to help it install solar panels on more than 30,000 homes across the U.K., reports Solar Power Portal.
Wagner Solar U.K. has appointed Kamil Shah as its new Marketing Manager. Shah, who arrives from Sanyo where he was European corporate communications manager, will be responsible for setting up the marketing department and coordinating all promotion and communication activities in the U.K.
A group of 15 investors have launched a legal challenge to overturn Spain's decision to cut its feed-in tariff. The group, who are thought to have invested more than €4 billion in the Spanish PV industry and includes private equity and infrastructure funds such as Impax Asset Management and Hudson Clean Energy Partners, are appealing the decision under the international Energy Charter Treaty.
Energy Smart is raising the profile of solar energy in the Baltics by building a 100kWp pilot plant in Kurenurme, Estonia. Foundations for the system’s 11 tracker towers were laid last week and, when completed, they will each hold 42 solar panels.
Dow Corning has named Samaro, a French specialty chemical product supplier, as the distributor for its silicon-based solar product solutions in France. The French company will be a technical resource and production base for Dow Corning’s solar division while delivering Dow Corning’s solar silicon products to local customers. Samaro has acted as Dow Corning Electronics’ French distributor and will additionally undertake the delivery of Dow Corning’s Molykote brand lubricant applications in North Africa.
Bridgestone is to add a new ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) production line to its factory in ?arów, Poland. An investment of US$58 million will be used to fund the installation, with manufacturing scheduled to begin during the first half of 2013.
Expanding Greece’s PV project portfolio, plans have been announced for the construction of 12.5MW of projects in Greece. Solaria will supply the modules for the various projects, the amount of which has not been specified, while Greek installer company Positive Energy will look after all procurement, engineering and maintenance of the plants.
Enphase Energy’s two new European offices, located in France and Italy, have been established in order for the company to better accommodate growing demands of its microinverter system. Both France and Italy have been cited as areas with a burgeoning solar market that stand on the brink of better implementing microinverter technology.
As expected, the Italian cabinet signed off on a solar policy without a 8GW annual cap, but did institute a 1MW cap on farmland projects. Under the new policy, projects are required to be connected to the grid before May 31 to benefit from the current feed-in tarrifs. Any new FiT decision for projects beyond May would likely be made by April 30, according to published reports.
