PV and electronics equipment manufacturing and automation specialist Manz AG has received €50 million from Chinese JV partners Shanghai Electric Group and Shenhua Group for turnkey CIGS thin-film production lines with a further €79 million also expected in May to start work on its largest ever equipment order.
Ecoligo is a Berlin-based crowdfunding start-up for solar projects in Africa’s commercial and industrial (C&I) market. Even though it is a company still very much in its infancy, it is already making waves by providing competitive alternatives to traditional bank loan products and connecting German private investors to tailored off-takers.
The theme of this week's Movers & Shakers is international expansion. PAYG off-grid solar provider Azuri Technologies is strengthening its leadership team to target West Africa, while Vancouver, Canada-based Solar Alliance Energy targets US assets and expands its sales team to accommodate for this. ABB appoints new regional heads to ensure direct market contact with Europe and the AMEA region.
Global clean energy investment in the first quarter of 2017 was down 17% compared to Q1 2016, as market leaders China and the US scaled back support for wind and solar farms.
This week's Movers & Shakers features new CEOs and the inauguration of new international offices. Sunworks and the Australian CEFC both welcome new CEOs and Enel Green Power North America opens its new office in Massachusetts, with Array Technologies expanding Down Under.
Belectric has developed PV plants on every continent of the globe except Antarctica and also delivers energy storage system projects and offers a wide range of energy storage solutions including in-house battery systems, turn-key large-scale battery storage as well as scalable container solutions. Managing director of Belectric Solar and Battery, Frank Amend, spoke to Energy-Storage.News about the company's recent acquisition by RWE subsidiary innogy and where the company sees energy storage (and solar) going.
This week's Movers & Shakers focuses on big career moves in Germany, India and the US. SMA Americas plans a major push into the US market, the International Solar Alliance welcomes a new interim director and India's Hartek Group takes on BHEL's Jeet Chhatwal to develop innovative automated systems and procedures for day-to-day activities which further improve productivity and bring more efficiency.
This week's Movers & Shakers segment sees big waves in Europe with a new president for SolarPower Europe and Lightsource hiring a new strategy officer in its move to evolve from a pure solar company to a global energy leader. There's resignations in some of Asia's biggest module manufacturers including Trina Solar and Yingli Green, and the Coalition for Community Solar Access celebrates its first anniversary and talks to PV Tech on how to keep the community solar boom going.
