A report by Bloomberg has brought Solyndra back into the spotlight. The now defunct company reached a US$3.5 million settlement with former workers who filed suit against Solyndra, alleging that they had not received adequate layoff notices. The settlement resolves the issue that the company did not give employees 60 days’ notice under the Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act when it fired most of its workforce on August 31, 2011.
Singulus Technologies reported sales of €43.6 million for the first six months of the year, down from €64.6 million in the same period of 2011. Solar segment equipment sales were 27.5% of revenue in the first half of 2012, or approximately €12 million, down from 33.1% of sales in the prior-year period.
To avoid further drains on its battered balance-sheet, REC said it would start winding-up REC Wafer Norway via bankruptcy proceedings. The solar wafer operations at two sites in Glomfjord and at Herøya have already been permanently closed down. The bankruptcy of REC Wafer Norway was said to not have an effect on REC Solar and REC Silicon operations, which continue to operate as normal.
Still in a restructuring and refinancing phase, designed to make the company more flexible and operate sustainably during dynamic changes in the solar industry, systems integrator, Phoenix Solar reported sales for the second quarter of 2012 as €46.5 million. This constitutes a 57.1% decline when compared to the same period a year ago. The company made a loss of €13.0 million, though refinancing of over €100 million was secured to enable the company to restructure.
Despite a 13% increase in sales for its fiscal third quarter, specialist PV equipment supplier, Amtech Systems has implemented new cost cutting measure to tackle the downturn that has proved to longer and deeper than expected. The cost reductions include voluntary salary reductions by management ranging from 10 to 20% and salary reductions of other corporate staff.
Despite improving business conditions for its US residential and utility-scale businesses that have led to capacity utilization rates topping 90%, SunPower’s management ruled out the need for a capital spending increase. Debottlenecking and new process migrations for all lines at Fab 2 and Fab 3 would negate the need for a new capital equipment spending cycle until some time in the first-half of 2014, which would then require the construction of Fab 4.
Tough times across Sharp Corporation’s electronics sectors filtered down into its solar manufacturing arm in its first quarter sales for the current financial year. Overall, Sharp posted quarterly losses of ¥138.4 billion (US$1.76 billion) on net sales of ¥458.6 billion. Sales within its solar cells segment were down 18.2%, compared to the same period in the previous year at ¥41.9 billion (US$534 million), generating an operating loss of ¥6.9 billion (US$57.5 million).
It appears the waivered salary of 2011 from Frank Asbeck, CEO for SolarWorld, was not wasted. The company has invested a total of US$27million to upgrade and replace several factory systems at its Hillsboro, Oregan, US plant. This particular facility was considered to be one of the ‘last plants standing’ in September 2011 because production lines were shuttered in Germany and throughout the US. The Hillsboro location also houses a demonstration park to debut technological advances, it hopes will boost the power output of its high-performance solar panels. The new initiatives push SolarWorld’s total capital investment in Hillsboro to more than US$600 million.
Ascent Solar Technologies, a developer of flexible thin-film PV modules, has signed an agreement to supply BIPV thin-film laminates to Foxconn. The laminates will be used as part of a pilot installation at Foxconn’s new plant in Zhenzhou City, Henan Province, China. Foxconn is a specialist in the manufacture of electronic devices and produces products such as the iPad and iPhone.
Dow Chemical Company's plans for expansion, announced last year, have come to fruition with the production of its Enlight Polyolefin Encapsulant Films for use in PV solar panels in Thailand. Having commenced production in Ohio, US, in 2010, the company is also constructing a third manufacturing site for this film in Schkopau, Germany.
