The US module maker plans to start shutting down production in Hillsboro in March. Around 170 employees are affected by the closure. At the same time, however, Sunpower is examining other options for continued operation.

The German energy company has acquired a 49% stake in U.K. installer Eco2solar. The British company offers solutions for commercial and residential projects.

New battery chemistry developed in Germany promises to make zinc-air batteries the storage technology of the future.

The funds come, on the one hand, from the regional government of Saxony-Anhalt and on the other, from the German central government.

The country added around 4.4 GW of new solar in the first 11 months of 2020 while its cumulative installed PV capacity reached 53.1 GW.

Under the new regulatory frameworks, the feed-in tariff scheme for rooftop PV will be maintained although only PV systems with a power output of up to 300 kW will be entitled to have the FIT at current levels. Installations ranging in size from 300-750 kW will receive only half of the payment. Owners of the latter scale of system, however, will be allowed to self-consume the generated energy.

Authorized Sunpower distributors and installers in Germany, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and the Netherlands are now offering the Maxeon 5 AC module for rooftop projects. An Enphase microinverter is already integrated into the product.

The two companies have concluded a settlement after several years of stalling. Ecosolifer will pay for part of the cell production line ordered in 2015 but Meyer Burger will incur a net loss of almost CHF2 million.

German utility EnBW plans to build 300 MW of solar at two sites in northeastern Germany, while Italian oil company ERG has entered the German PV market with a 600 MW PV project portfolio.

By the end of October, about 2 million PV systems were operational throughout Germany, according to the German Solar Industry Association (BSW-Solar).