Registered professional engineer Doug Mutcher has joined Westwood Professional Services’ national solar energy group as an electrical engineering manager. Mutcher holds almost 20 years of experience in electrical engineering field work for the industrial, commercial, transportation, educational, corporate, medical, retail, manufacturing and process industries.
Declining prices whether on the spot market or long-term supply agreements are making business conditions very tough for polysilicon producers, regardless of their market size or purity of the material they produce. According to the latest financial results of Dow Corning, its JV subsidiary, Hemlock Semiconductor expects overcapacity in the sector to continue throughout 2012.
The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, has announced it will omit net-metering purchase prices from the new feed-in tariffs due to be implemented in July. Instead, the government has decided that in order to avoid confusion, current rates will be extended for three months until June and kept separate from the feed-in tariff.
ReneSola has announced that its chief strategy officer, Charles Bai, has left the company as his contract comes to an end. The departure is effective May 1, 2012.
Assurant has launched a new comprehensive insurance offering for commercial solar project developments specifically aimed to service the 100kW to 3MW solar market. The Assurant Solar Project Insurance is said to be the industry’s first warranty administration and comprehensive protection plan for all phases of commercial-sized development projects.
K. Subramanya has resigned as CEO of India’s third largest panel manufacturer, Tata BP Solar, effective May 1. No explanation was given for the resignation and Subramanya has stated he has no plans for the immediate future.
OPEL Technologies released its financial statements for both Q4 2011 and the full 2011 fiscal year. The company confirmed that its revenue for Q4 was US$1.05 million while its annual revenue amounted to US$5.9 million. Both its quarterly and yearly revenues surpassed the amounts posted the year before by US$4.2 million in annual revenue and US$678,806 in quarterly revenue.
SolarCity advised that it is planning to organise a registered initial public offering of its common stock. The company anticipates beginning the offering after the SEC completes the review process initiated by SolarCity’s confidential submission on April 26 of its draft registration statement.
NPD Solarbuzz has announced the promotion of Finlay Colville, Ph.D. to vice president and the appointment of Wolfgang Schlichting as research director, Downstream Markets.
Delayed fourth quarter and full-year results at LDK Solar show the full extent of the challenges facing the integrated PV manufacturer. Having already revised downwards its fourth quarter figures, the company missed revenue guidance and guided first quarter revenue to levels not seen since the second quarter of 2009. Loss from operations for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2011 was US$531.4 million on the back of heavy write downs across the company, leading to a net loss of US$588.7 million. Revenue reached US$2.15 billion in 2011, compared to US$2.5 billion in 2010.
