Southeast Asia & Oceania

Key Taiwan-based wafer producers Green Energy Technology (GET), Sino-American Silicon (SAS) and Danen Technology delivered mixed sales results for September, 2016, yet the underlining trend remained weak demand and ASP pressures.

CleanFund provides US$10 million in PACE financing for a 5MW Cali project, India's Hero Future Energies commissions a 1MW rooftop solar project in Delhi and GameChange Solar deploys ground mount systems in Massachusetts landfills.

Leading PV manufacturing equipment supplier Meyer Burger Technology announced a major restructuring plan to become more flexible to market dynamics by lowering its operating cost base by CHF 50 million per annum and reducing its workforce by around 16% by the end of 2016.

Major Korea-based polysilicon producer OCI Company said it would make a final decision on acquiring Tokuyama’s Malaysian polysilicon operations by the end of March 2017.

‘Silicon Module Super League’ (SMSL) member JA Solar said it had withdrawn from the European Union’s Minimum Import Price (MIP) agreement.

An Australian island will soon host the world’s first renewable energy microgrid that integrates wave energy, solar PV and energy storage technologies.

The solar centric political campaigning group EU ProSun, established by integrated PV module manufacturer, SolarWorld, has condemned China and Chinese module manufacturers for causing SolarWorld to make 500 ‘temporary’ workers at its manufacturing plants in Germany, redundant.

d.light, a solar solutions provider for communities without access to reliable power, has secured US$22.5 million in new financing to grow its PayGo business into additional off-grid territories.

High-efficiency PV module producer and project developer SunPower is to take over its joint venture (JV) solar cell manufacturing operations in Malaysia from Taiwan-based partner AUO, a subsidiary of AU Optronics Corporation at a cost of US$170 million, payable over the next four years.

The average severity of insurance claims from the solar PV industry has increased by 87% over the past five years often as a result of extreme weather, according to new research from renewables insurance specialist GCube Underwriting.