Highlights

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.

Insolvency proceedings have been opened against the assets of the German thin-film solar manufacturer. A proposed reorganization failed because investors did not provide sufficient capital. Some 180 employees will lose their jobs.

The Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), an Indonesian think tank, has reported that the country has the potential to install up to 655 GW of rooftop PV capacity. Contrast that with a current installed capacity of just 100 MW, and it’s clear that solar PV still has a long way to go before it reaches its potential throughout Indonesia. Given the poor air quality in many heavily populated cities across the archipelago, PV deployment is long overdue in the Southeast Asian nation.

The latest figures released by BloombergNEF show new solar and onshore wind power plants have reached parity with average wholesale prices in California, China and parts of Europe. The technologies are winning the race to be the cheapest sources of new generation for two-thirds of the world’s population.

The mono giant has announced the latest aspect of a strategy to massively increase production capacity which is currently set to cost around $3.32 billion. Longi last week issued $710 million of new convertible bonds for investors.

The World Climate Summit in Santiago de Chile, set to be held in just a few weeks, has just been cancelled. Against a background of social protests in the country, concerns have recently grown as to whether logistics and security could be guaranteed for the event. Nevertheless, social problems and environmental protection must not be played off against each other: Both are closely linked to the economic paradigms of recent decades.

With solar energy about to reach the iconic terawatt (TW) milestone of globally installed PV capacity, waste handling and end-of-life (EoL) scenarios become a pressing matter.

Enormous order intake is ensuring high production capacity utilization at the German PV equipment provider. The company said demand was particularly strong for high-efficiency solar cell production equipment in Asia. Thus far this year, however, that has not been reflected in the balance sheet.

The islands of the Caribbean have been focusing on the deployment of storage solutions, minigrids and microgrids in response to the damage their power systems suffered during the 2017 hurricane season. But with the opportunities, there are also challenges.

PV InfoLink analyzed the key markets of China’s big module manufacturers, as well as product trends, based on export statistics. According to trade figures, the nation’s module exports totaled 34.2 GW in the first half of 2019, up by more than 90% from the corresponding period of 2018. In a nutshell, overseas demand has been strong in 2019.