As revealed in Hanwha SolarOne’s recent quarterly financial conference call, the PV module manufacturer is moving downstream to become a project developer and financier. As part of those business changes the company has formed a joint venture with project developer S.A.G. Solarstrom to initially build-out 20MWp of rooftop projects - mainly in Northern Italy - that are expected to be completed by the end of June 2012.
Volker Böhm, insolvency administrator of the bankrupt Solar Millennium in Erlangen, has sold PV Power Holding shares to Bavaria-based Schoeller Renewables. Solar Millennium held 50% in PV Power Holding, a developer of PV projects in Italy.
Canadian Solar and Lightsource Renewable Energy have announced the completion of joint projects in the UK. Ground-mounted PV plants were built in Cornwall (Bodmin), Lincolnshire (Spalding) and Somerset (Taunton), with a combined capacity of 6.4MW.
The first roll-to-roll flexible OPV thin film plant using vacuum deposition of oligomers has been officially opened by Heliatek. The €14 million facility in Dresden, Germany has 1 pilot/production line initially with the expectation to launch commercial product offerings in around the third quarter of 2012. The first key market Heliatek is addressing is BIPV and has plans to raise a further €50 million for a full-scale production line. An opening ceremony was attended by the Prime Minister of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich.
Diversification in both business segments and on a regional basis proved successful for Portugal-based Martifer Solar which said its revenue increased 33% to €293.2 million in 2011. Unlike some of its rivals, the company also posted positive EBITDA of €20.1 million and a net profit of €9.5 million. The company noted that was the fourth consecutive year of positive financial results.
Q-Cells’ EPC capabilities will be called upon for the construction of four new PV power plants totalling 2.4MW in the central Greek region of Thessaly. Of the four plants, two will be roof-mounted on industrial building rooftops in the towns of Larisa (530kWp) and Farsala (830kWp), while the remaining two ground-mounted projects will each be 500kW will both be situated on an open-field site near the town of Larisa.
French solar panel manufacturer Senersun has signed a deal with the French project developer AEG Aquitaine to furnish residential homes in the South West of France with 1MW of PV modules. Altogether, Senersun will supply more than 5,400 of its crystalline solar panels for the residential applications, which will be installed on rooftops.
SCHOTT Solar is the latest company to receive TÜV Rheinland’s IEC standard 61701 certificate to pass the salt spray corrosion test. The modules are sprayed with salt water for two hours at a time, then attacked by a 5% sodium chloride solution and finally stored at 40°C and 93% humidity for 20 hours.
According electricity grid operator Terna, 2.8% of 86.3% of Italy’s production of electricity for 2011 came from PV solar energy. The remaining 13.7% came from foreign imports. The net national production (289.2 billion kWh) dropped by 0.5% compared to 2010, geothermal production increased (+5.2%), as did wind power (+5.7%) and PV solar power grew by 394% compared to 2010.
Solarcentury is launching the new C21e solar electric plain roof tile, responding to demand for more products for roofs. The advantage of the C21e is that it can easily be integrated into traditional small format tile roofs. The company first launched the C21e roof tile in 2005, going on to win the Queen’s award. The tile is 47W and 54 tiles for a typical 2.5kWp system and this system is able to replace on average 200 tiles and thus, uses a lot less space on the roof.
