Manufacturing

A group of 20 U.S. solar industry stakeholders have submitted a letter to Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, in which they lay out their recommendations for creating a “smart from the start” public land solar energy program. They also state that it “must” be complete by the end of fiscal year 2012.

Semprius has recorded an efficiency of 33.9 percent on one of its high concentrating photovoltaic (HCPV) modules. The results have been verified by the Instituto de Energia Solar (IES) at the University of Madrid, in Spain.

LDK Solar, Bosch and Centrosolar have all been given the green light to go ahead with their planned (and, for LDK and Centrosolar, partial) takeovers of Sunways, Voltwerk and Gecko Group, respectively.

Yingli Green Energy and IBC Solar AG have entered into an agreement, under which Yingli will supply IBC with up to 200 megawatts (MW) of photovoltaic modules in 2012.

According to various reports, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) has once again moved back the deadline for its decision regarding the SolarWorld-led U.S.-China trade dispute.

The EU Parliament has officially changed the guidelines for its WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) Directive. Under the amendments, used photovoltaic modules must now be collected and recycled.

According to the latest European PV Markets Quarterly report from NPD Solarbuzz, the first quarter (Q1) of 2012 is expected to see a 10 percent rise in European photovoltaics demand. However, it says that due to the amount of photovoltaics added in Q4 2011, incentive policy changes are being accelerated.

In a surprise move, the Spanish Council of ministers has implemented a temporary suspension of the renewable energy feed-in-tariffs (FIT) for new installations in Spain.

Following the official announcement this week that Italy’s energy regulator, GSE, will not open a register for large-scale photovoltaic plants in the second half of 2012, the government has now said it wants to apply a retroactive measure to Article 65 of Law Decree n. 1/2012 (“Decreto Monti”) which, if passed into law, will affect photovoltaic installations on agricultural land.

Eastman Chemical Company and Solutia Inc. have entered into a definitive agreement worth around $4.7 billion, under which Eastman intends to take the U.S.-based chemical products company over.