Hanwha SolarOne has acquired a three-year US$180 million syndicated term loan facility led by The Korea Development Bank, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), KEB Hong Kong Branch, KDB Asia and KEB Asia Finance. The loans will be denominated in US dollar and will be guaranteed by Hanwha Chemical Corporation.
Poor demand for silver paste, primarily used in solar cell production, was highlighted by Ferro management as a key reason for lower quarterly earnings at Ferro Corporation. The company reported net sales of US$466 million for the three-month period ended March 31, 2012, compared with net sales of US$573 million in the first quarter of 2011.
NRG Energy, First Solar and MidAmerican Solar representatives gathered to connect the first 100MW of the 290MW Agua Caliente Solar Project to the grid. The project is owned by NRG Energy and MidAmerican, while operator First Solar designed and constructed the plant in Yuma County, Arizona, using thin-film modules. During the event, company representatives answered questions and tours of the site were given. Once completed, Agua Caliente will be the largest solar power plant in North America. The generated energy will be sold to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company under a long-term PPA.
WCVB Boston has reported that Massachusetts’ governor, Devel Patrick, will “turn on” the state’s first solar park today. The 4.5MW solar facility is built across 22-acres in Westford and uses 14,000 solar panels. Built by Cathartes Private Investments, the US$23 million complex will be operated by Nexamp.
Rajasthan, India, will not be awarding contracts to build 200MW of solar capacity to competing companies until August, a two-month delay. According to Bloomberg, MM Vijayvergia, executive director of Rajasthan Renewable Energy advised that the last day for companies to submit their interest in the bidding is May 18.
Yesterday, at Hannover Messe, Germany, Phono Solar and SYBAC solar signed a five-year purchase agreement for €300 million, which equates to an output of 500MW. Last month, Phono Solar, a monocrystalline and polycrystalline silicon solar modules manufacturer, passed TÜV Rheinland’s ammonia corrosion test.
The voluntary takeover offer for Sunways, submitted by LDK’s German subsidiary, has been accepted following the passing of the additional acceptance period on April 12.
Q-Cells has completed the construction of the largest European PV project, located in Brandenburg-Briest. The construction of the 91MW solar park took only eight weeks and the project on the former 200 hectares military base in the east of Germany is equipped with approximately 383,000 Q-Cells crystalline PV modules, with a total capacity of 91MWp.
Intel Vietnam has announced the opening of the biggest solar power plant in Vietnam to date, located at Saigon's High-Tech Park. Intel’s US$1.1 million project is equipped with 1,092 solar panels and 21 adapters. It has an output of 321,000kWh per year.
Following a continued downturn in operating results, Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) will close its 650MW multicrystalline wafer plant at Herøya, Norway by the second quarter of 2012. The closure of the Herøya plant, in the south of the country, will signal the end of all REC’s wafer operations in Norway after the closure of the Glomfjord monocrystalline plant on March 20, 2012.
