Only a few weeks before releasing third-quarter 2011 financial results on October 27, 2011, inverter supplier, Power-One has reduced guidance for the quarter. Power-One expects revenue to be in the range of US$240-US$245 million, down from previous guidance of US$265 million-US$280 million. The company cited weaker than expected demand for lower revenue expectation. Sales in the second-quarter were US$180 million.
Task force leader, Christian Prischmann, from UIbrich, a specialist metals provider to the PV industry, was the recipient of the Standards Leadership award. The European Semi award went to Dr. Tibor Pavelka, CEO of Semilab Co. Ltd. who is a producer of metrology equipment for the characterization of semiconductor and PV materials.
Inventory writedowns and a weaker-than-expected recovery in demand for PV installations, specifically in Germany, are behind revised financial guidance by Phoenix Solar. The project developer warned of significant losses for the fiscal year 2011 and said it would be looking at its current business model in an effort to make changes and reduce costs to return to profitability in 2012.
UK based Foresight Group has signed a joint venture agreement with Quercus Renewable Energy Fund, a division of the Luxembourg-based Quercus Asset Selection, for the expansion of its investments in the Italian solar PV market. Quercus bought a 50% stake in Foresight’s Luxembourg holding Foresight Lux Co 2, which controls 40% of ForVEI, a company that was established by investors with help from Foresight, who were looking to buy interests in Italian PV plants.
SunEdison and KGAL recently finalized an agreement that sees KGAL buying 33MW of solar PV systems from SunEdison, which are located in Italy and Spain. Financial and specific project details were not released, but the recent acquisition comes after KGAL completed a 20MW purchase from SunEdison in Q2 2011.
Following the resignation of Greg Ye and Dafeng Shi from its board of directors, Daqo New Energy advised that it had selected Mingsong Liang and Shuming Zhao as the new independent directors for the company board. Liang is a co-managing partner of investment banking firm CLA Partners in China. He received his PhD degree in economics from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and a JD degree from New York University. Liang additionally serves on the audit committee for Daqo’s board.
Venture capital to the tune of US$350 million in 33 deals was handed out to solar-based firms in the third quarter of 2011, according to the latest roundup by Cleantech Group. Also of note was a reported US$812 million raised four China-based solar cell/module manufacturers via IPOs.
Following on from the recent Solyndra debacle, the head of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Program, Jonathan Silver, has resigned his post. Although the two incidents might well be unrelated, media reports are hinting at the two being linked, following the DOE’s bestowal of a loan of US$535 million to the now-bankrupt Solyndra.
No surprises after announcing it was entering into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, Evergreen Solar has been officially delisted from Nasdaq. Evergreen Solar stock was suspended from the exchange on August 24, 2011 and has not traded on NASDAQ since that time.
Bringing more than 60 years combined experience in the solar, semiconductor and power electronics industries, ArrayPower, a Silicon Valley-based power electronics company, announced the appointment of three members to its core leadership team.
