WEnergy was celebrating the commissioning of its solar-diesel-storage off-grid network on the island of Palawan. Four more networks could come online within two years, said the developer, as part of a planned 15 microgrids in the nation.

The solar manufacturer’s ever-accelerating production capacity expansion plans currently foresee 10 GW of mono wafers being pumped out at the Sichuan facility every year from the second quarter of 2020 – and only a fool would bet against that timetable being bettered by the time April rolls around.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending €250 million for a project which has expanded from producing an initial 100,000 EV batteries per year to an hoped-for 1 million by 2022, creating 1,000 new jobs along the way.

The Finnish solar manufacturer must raise €3.5 million from a convertible bond issued on Monday and which closes on December 18. Generate the cash and production is expected to start at the Solitek facility in Vilnius early next year. Fail, and (almost) all bets are off.

TES issued a press release announcing the new facilities that is light on detail but claimed the plants would position it as ‘a leader’ in battery recycling. The company also announced an intent to move into the reuse of spent electric vehicle batteries in commercial and residential applications.

The European Solar Manufacturing Council says a decision by policymakers to disregard the carbon footprint of imported solar products ‘makes absolutely no sense’. Talk of ‘jobs which require a rather low qualification’, meanwhile, is unlikely to heal the widening rift with solar project developers and panel installers.

Chinese thin film manufacturer Hanergy told pv magazine in August the manufacturing division of Solibro had ceased to be one of its subsidiaries in December 2015 but a company presentation issued six months later would appear to indicate otherwise. Hanergy has been approached for comment.

The margin of support for the proposed $198 million takeover by a Beijing entity came as no surprise and the deal now hinges on the holders of $430 million of defaulted debts supporting a delayed settlement of their claims. First up, though, is a date with a winding-up petition on Monday.

The Swiss solar equipment supplier today fought off an attempt by its largest single shareholder to have a representative appointed to its board and to have its executive pay regime reviewed. Victory in that battle may secure the company some wiggle room, but the war over corporate strategy appears far from over.

Ukraine’s favorite solar module manufacturer has posted another encouraging set of returns, after a difficult year in 2018. And Risen – which boasted 6.6 GW of annual production capacity at the end of last year, according to analysts at PV InfoLink – is committed to adding another 2.5 GW before 2022.