The Chinese manufacturer first announced plans to close its manufacturing facility in Frankfurt (Oder) at the beginning of this year. About 40 people who worked at the factory will now shift over to a transfer company.

Approximately 420 MW of solar power was newly installed in February. The strong growth for the first two months of the year was mainly due to the FIT cuts for commercial PV projects.

The two sides have agreed not to disclose the purchase price, but Enerparc’s management team will maintain a minority interest.

Germany’s Federal Network Agency awarded 121 contracts and 505 MW of PV capacity in the auction. The bidding round was clearly oversubscribed, but 17 bids with a total output of almost 200 MW had to be ruled out due to formal errors.

The German inverter producer’s sales also fell significantly in the past financial year. With its cost reduction program, SMA is now eager to orchestrate a turnaround, but its first-quarter guidance still shows a sustained downward trend.

The Dutch Institute for Sustainable Process Technology has launched the Gigawatt Elektrolysefabriek project, which aims to produce green hydrogen at the gigawatt scale from wind and solar parks in the Netherlands.

The Swiss Federal Office of Energy has announced that it will provide an additional CHF 30 million ($30.2 million) to reduce the waiting list for large-scale PV systems. According to local solar industry association Swissolar, however, the government must do more to reduce bureaucratic hurdles for solar energy development. The trade body also claims that the country has the potential to deploy 50 GW of PV capacity by 2050.

The Norwegian manufacturer said Hanwha Q Cells’ legal action in Germany has not started yet, and it will take all necessary steps to defend itself against patent infringement allegations.

The German poly manufacturer expects to increase sales in the current financial year, however EBITDA is expected to be down as much as 20% as average prices for polysilicon will continue to decline.

The Korean solar manufacturer has lodged a patent infringement lawsuit against Jinko and REC in Germany, and two more against the same companies plus Longi in the U.S. Hanwha Q Cells claims its three rivals have used its patented solar cell passivation technology to increase the performance of their products.