SpectraWatt willo auction off its 140,000 square-foot crystalline silicon cell manufacturing and research facility in Hudson Valley at the end of the month. In August the cell manufacturer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the bulk and piecemeal auction, to be carried out by Heritage Global Partners, Counsel RB Capital and Silicon Valley Disposition, marks the first stage of financial restructuring.
Two weeks after Conergy was busy putting out fires surrounding the rumors that it was planning to close its manufacturing plant in Frankfurt, the company has advised that it will be halting production of its wafer and cell manufacturing lines at the German facility. The company advised that its PV module production at the Oder plant would continue, but that the over-capacity, price pressures and the inability to cover the costs of wafer and cell manufacturing had forced it to discontinue the productions for the time being.
Calisolar is making its move to become high-volume low-cost silicon solar wafer producer with plans to build a 16,000MT silicon production facility in Lowndes County, Mississippi at an estimated cost of US$600 million. A pioneer of enhanced UMG-based wafers, Calisolar is bring silicon material production in-house to significantly lower costs and have greater control over material quality. When fully operational, the plant is said to employ 951 full-time workers.
Ubbink East Africa, Centrotec Sustainable's Dutch subsidiary, has opened East Africa's first PV module factory in Naivasha, Kenya. Ubbink plans to produce around 30,000 modules a year, with the majority of these being used to cater for the growing number of small-scale systems in Africa.
Silex Systems’ subsidiary, Silex Solar, revealed plans to restructure its silicon PV panel business located at Sydney Olympic Park, a facility it bought a few years ago from BP Solar. Changes will revolve around management and operations, which the company hopes will strengthen its position in the business.
As part of its strategy to supply a complete materials offering to the PV industry, Dow Corning has brought online a new 4,000MT per annum monosilane gas facility, adjacent to Hemlock Semiconductor’s polysilicon manufacturing plant in Hemlock, Michigan.
Day4 Energy has signed a deal with Austrian solar module manufactuer PV Products to provide the equipment and technology to upgrade its 30MW production facility for the manufacture of solar panels featuring Day4 DNA crystalline-silicon cells. The upgrade of PVP's automated 30MW production facility to Day4 technology is scheduled to begin immediately, with production anticipated to start in early September, the companies said.
Three years after solar mounting manufacturer Quick Mount PV moved into its present Concord, California facility, the company revealed plans to move all company operations into a larger, 133,000 square foot home base in Walnut Creek, California. The relocation will take place during the middle of the first quarter in 2012, which, the company states, will allow it to meet the ever-increasing demands for its products.
ReneSola said it has progressed on two manufacturing fronts, with the start of trial production of its in-house steel wire used for slicing solar wafers and the development of a new generation of higher capacity casting furnaces.
