While third-party outsourcing of solar PV module assembly has been a constant feature of the PV industry for many years, the landscape of suppliers and the country of manufacturing has changed radically in the past two years, and will continue to do so out to the end of 2018.
While there is no shortage of leading indicators in the PV industry that can be used to predict future trends in manufacturing and across the various companies involved in this space, one of the most pertinent ones relates to capital expenditure (or capex).
US-based PV module manufacturer Mission Solar is to cut its existing workforce by a further 58% after closing its solar cell production lines at its facilities in San Antonio, Texas in October 2016.
Yingli Green Energy the eighth largest PV module manufacturer in 2016, according to the latest PV Tech rankings (by shipments), is to supply an unnamed customer in Australia with 13.3MW of its 72-cell 1500V series modules.
Yesterday, we exclusively revealed the top-10 solar cell producers for 2016. In the second part of our top-10 series, we can now reveal for the first time the top-10 module suppliers to the solar industry for 2016.
Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider Celestica said it was winding down solar module assembly operations at its Toronto, Ontario, Canada production plant in the first quarter of 2017.
Integrated PV manufacturer and project developer ReneSola said it planned to undertake a reverse stock split in February, 2017 to restore its compliance with the New York Stock Exchange’s (NYSE) minimum US$1.0 stock price rules.
Major Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider Flex has acknowledged the scale of the impact on its business with the bankruptcy last year of its largest solar energy client, SunEdison.
Indian state-owned electricity equipment supplier and PV project developer Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) has officially opened its upgraded and extended PV module manufacturing operations in Bangalore, Karnataka state, India.
