BP Solar saw a recovery in sales in the third quarter, reflecting a recovery in business BP reported in its latest quarterly results statement. Module sales in the quarter reached the equivalent of 73MW, compared with 47MW in the same period of last year.
First Solar has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese government to build a multiphase solar power plant project in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, a site that will eventually reach 2GW in installed capacity. Once finalized, the agreement--the first of its kind between the Chinese authorities and a non-Chinese solar company--could also lead to the construction of First Solar moduling and supplier manufacturing facilities in the region.
Trina Solar saw its second-quarter revenues increase over the previous quarter although sales numbers were down from the same period in 2008, while net income went back into the black compared to the first quarter. The Chinese integrated photovoltaics manufacturer shipped nearly 31% more modules in the quarter versus the preceding three months. The company also said it expects to reach nearly 600MW in PV cell and module production capacity by the end of this year.
Solar industry veteran PM Pai has joined global venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) as a venture partner. Pai, who has more than 30 years of manufacturing and mass production expertise spanning several industries, will work with NEA's energy technology team. He is already on the boards of two of the VC's portfolio companies, silicon solar-cell manufacturer Suniva and Deeya Energy, an advanced energy storage developer.
Robert Lieberman has joined Spire Corp. as corporate controller, bringing more than 25 years of manufacturing and distribution experience to the role. As corporate controller, he will be shouldered with responsibility for Spire’s financial dealings, and working on improving existing processes and business efficiencies.
In a multi-year collaboration agreement, SunPower Corp. has committed to working with Jabil Circuit, Inc. on the manufacture of solar panels. Jabil will begin manufacturing solar panels in Mexico for North America’s solar market in the second half of 2009.
After a slow start, this year’s PV Industry Forum, the traditional opening conference of Intersolar Week in Munich, finally got going during the last session of the day with a resounding call to action from none other than Q-Cells’ boss, Anton Milner. The conference opened with the usual slides and the usual suspects giving their views of the overall solar market. The obligatory emerging market was given lip service--this time it was India--while the rest of the presentations mostly failed to engage the audience in a meaningful way. Things changed during the afternoon....
Recent rumours of a business tie-up between Q-Cells and LDK Solar have come to fruition with the official formation of a Joint Venture (JV) to promote and supply PV systems for large-scale solar power plants in both Europe and China. The new business partners said that a 40MW project located in Europe had already been secured, which will see the use of solar wafers from LDK Solar and solar cells from Q-Cells, though no details were given in respect to modules.
Canadian Solar executives said during a conference call to discuss 4Q and year-end financial results that polysilicon prices had fallen to between US$110 per kg and US$130 per kg. This had enabled the module manufacturer to renegotiate UMG silicon feedstock prices to approximately US$60 per kg, maintaining a US$50 per kg margin between the two feedstocks. Canadian Solar uses UMG silicon in its ‘e-modules’ and has already secured contracts for these lower (15%) priced modules in 2009, equating to 120MW.
The PV Group’s recent PV Fab Managers’ Forum in Dresden, Germany, was a successful event that saw attendance by over 200 leaders and technology experts in the PV industry. The overriding message was that the goal of grid parity would be greatly helped along by the implementation of standards – an ITRS of sorts for the PV industry.
