Employment

The Swiss equipment supplier already needed to shore up its bottom line and is now taking measures to help combat the spread of an epidemic which has also claimed November’s planned climate summit in Glasgow and an estimated 19% of this year’s demand for energy storage.

The economic fallout of the Covid-19 outbreak is yet to be determined but as legislators scramble to establish fiscal support for the EU it is becoming clear the suits in Brussels are not prepared to scrap their hard-won Green Deal plan. Quite the opposite, in fact.

The Covid-19 crisis has far-reaching effects – including on the PV industry and solar installation market. The results of a survey conducted in a recent pv magazine webinar painted a picture of businesses unsettled by the pandemic but still taking orders at present.

The US solar company says its production lines in Ohio, Malaysia and Vietnam have thus far been able to carry on operations. The company says measures have been taken to protect its workers at all of its premises.

Franc Raffalli, president of the Photovoltaic Professions Group of the French Building Federation spoke to pv magazine about the impact of the coronavirus on the French PV industry.

Tesla’s Nevada operation is still open for business, though. The EV and battery maker has assured the market its cash position is strong enough to weather an “extended period of uncertainty”.

Byron Bay-based solar retailer Smart Energy says it is seeing an unprecedented surge in sales and enquiries for solar and home energy storage as consumers look to shore themselves up in uncertain times.

The Swiss PV equipment supplier posted the loss for 2019, citing increasingly fierce competition in China, and plans to continue a strategic realignment of its business with the options including the establishment of a European PV manufacturing operation.

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.

Although decried for lacking ambition and as an abdication of responsibility in some quarters, the climate law proposed by the European Commission may be more ambitious than it first appears, as Felicia Jackson, from the center for sustainable finance of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London – considers here.