Manufacturing

Europa Profil Aluminium S.A and Neon Energy will work on 41 photovoltaic parks in Greece worth a total of 20.7 megawatts peak (MWp) in 2012.

Details over Microsol’s intended takeover of Solon SE have emerged. Under its plans, the facility at Greifswald will close and 25 jobs will be lost.

Ever clearer signals are emerging that Germany’s Federal Government is planning a new type of cap for solar subsidies. According to the latest plans, only a yearly electricity yield of between 800 and 900 kilowatt (kW) hours per kW peak will qualify for a tariff. Such a rule would, above all, benefit Chinese module and inverter suppliers.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania are suffering from too much of a good thing. The two northeastern U.S. states have an oversupply of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates, also called SRECs. How they solve the problem will be instructive to utility boards, load-serving entities (LSEs), the solar industry; and governments, environmentalists, and electricity customers worldwide.

Lower polysilicon prices and higher photovoltaic module efficiencies are expected to further lower crystalline silicon (c-Si) module prices in 2012, according to Brett Prior, a senior analyst at U.S.-based GTM Research, the market research arm of Greentech Media, in Boston.

New research has revealed that while forecasts for the photovoltaic manufacturing equipment industry are depressing, there is a 20 gigawatt (GW) opportunity to replace aging equipment over the next four years.

As was announced yesterday, the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has proposed yet more changes to the country’s photovoltaic feed-in tariffs (FITs). While the move has been described as a “huge step forward”, the industry says the impending tariff reductions will be “destructive”.

French electricity giant, Electricité de France (EdF) has announced its intention to acquire French solar producer, Photowatt, which filed for insolvency last November.

The PV Legal project has found that while positive progress has been made in reducing bureaucratic barriers to photovoltaic implementation, there are still many in place, which continue to hinder development. Grid connection was highlighted as the biggest bottleneck.

The Italian arm of Solon has announced a new strategy, aimed at repositioning itself as a systems integrator. As such, will close its 95 megawatt photovoltaic module production plant on February 20. Seventy employees will be affected by the changes.