Bankruptcy

U.S.-owned analyst Wood Mackenzie expects solar demand to decline but predicts the market will recover, with the prospects for the energy transition remaining intact.

With the opening of insolvency proceedings, the business operations of the company were halted days ago. No potential investor could be found to take over the business.

With the European Commission claiming its €100 billion ‘Just Transition’ fund will ease EU coal mining regions into a post-fossil-fuel future energy system, Adam Smith considers what happened in one deprived area of Britain when government policy failed to support talk of clean energy ambitions.

The move, by Taitong Industry Ltd, will come as a fresh blow to the Chinese module manufacturer, which twice failed to go public – in the U.S. and China – and whose project development business suffered a battering in China when Beijing reined in subsidies in 2018.

Insolvency proceedings have been under way for the separate Solibro GmbH division since late summer and business operations have long been suspended there. With Chinese thin-film manufacturer Hanergy having told pv magazine it pulled out of that business in 2015 – despite apparent evidence to the contrary – this week another Hanergy subsidiary, Solibro Hi-Tech, declared insolvency.

PV industry veteran Karl-Heinz Remmers recalls the trajectory of solar power this decade and predicts stronger than expected development for the ten years ahead.

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.

Despite promises by President Trump to save the coal industry, the crisis in the sector is clear. Solar, wind and batteries have the world to gain.

The Italian fossil fuel company is not hanging around when it comes to diversifying into PV, with almost 1.5 GW of generation capacity plugged in since the start of last year. Canadian Solar has disputed Wiki-Solar’s positioning of First Solar as the world’s biggest PV developer.