Solon has officially celebrated its newest solar module production line in Greifswald, Germany. The minister president of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, state minister for economic affairs and the mayor of Greifswald were on hand at the ceremony and sanctioned the beginning of production. In addition to the 60 new jobs the production line has created, Solon has increased its site manufacturing capacity to 185MWp.
SolarEdge Technologies and Albatech have come together to expand SolarEdge’s Italian business with its power harvesting solution. Since the Italian solar market is one of the most rapid growing in Europe, the companies look to market SolarEdge’s product towards installers and system owners to help them benefit from hassle free design, real-time module level monitoring, better maintenance at a lower cost, favourable site-area utilization, theft prevention, improved safety and reliability for the quicker return on investment.
Avancis and Donauer have announced their partnership for Avancis’ PowerMax CIS thin-film solar modules. The Avancis’ modules have an output of 100-120W and carry a 12% efficiency rate, making them the first CIS thin-film modules to be integrated into Donauer’s portfolio.
Updated: In what looks like a strategy to better compete with low-cost Asia-based solar module manufacturers after losing significant market share in some of its core markets, SunPower has secretly sourced from third-party suppliers a SunPower-branded multicrystalline module ‘Serengeti’ to be used in commercial applications. The scoop was revealed by financial analyst Mark Bachman of investment firm Auriga USA. According to Bachman, who discovered the product on SunPower’s website in an unlinked location, believes SunPower’s competitive argument that the company’s high-efficiency monocrystalline modules can compete effectively with lower-priced Asian modules is now in question. SunPower has not officially launched the product.
Akeena Solar has announced its results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010. The company reports total revenue of US$6.5 million with a gross profit margin of 23% with strong bookings. Compared to the year-end, backlog increased US$2.0 million, and was more than double the US$4.8 million backlog at the end of the first quarter of 2009.
SunPower has signed an agreement with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), completing contractual arrangements between the companies for the development of a 250MW solar photovoltaic power plant in San Luis Obispo County, CA.
Hoku Materials has announced the successful production of polysilicon at its manufacturing facility in Pocatello, Idaho. The company produced the material after completing a comprehensive system commissioning protocol which culminated in deposition runs in a select number of its installed polysilicon reactors.
Proinso announced that it will be supplying PV modules for a solar PV project totaling 35MW in Ravenna, Italy. The agreement follows the 40MW of modules for 186 PV projects in Italy through May. With this new announcement, the company projects around 100MW of sales in the Italian PV market.
Singulus recently published their first quarter financial results, posting a higher order intake this year of € 39.8 million, compared to last year’s first quarter € 17.4 million. The company still felt the hard economic hit though when it came to sales trends, posting a total of € 21.6 million for first quarter 2010.
Q-Cells supervisory board has hired Dr. Marion Helmes as the new CFO, effective July 1, 2010. Dr. Helmes comes to the CFO post after Dr. Nedim Cen, who has held the position on a temporary basis since March, while also serving as chairman for Q-Cells board of directors.
