pv magazine's weekly news roundup
A quick look back at the biggest solar news stories that have grabbed our attention over these past seven days.
Smart money against hitting EU target
The EU is on track to fall short of its target of having smart meters in 80% of households by 2020. Member states have committed more than $60 billion to the smart meter roll out.
SunEdison shows strong growth in Q2 2014, supported by yieldco launch
The solar developer’s revenue grew 62% year-over-year in Q2 2014, and SunEdison ended the quarter with 475 MW of projects under construction. More importantly, the company held its yieldco IPO in July, as it moves towards a model of holding projects instead of selling them.
Enphase Energy cuts second-quarter loss, posts record revenue
Strong demand from the core domestic market as well as from overseas helped boost sales at the California solar microinverter systems manufacturer.
Vivint files for IPO for solar business
The home automation and security company has filed to spin off its solar business. Vivint Solar is the second-largest residential installer in the United States, and is gaining market share.
GCL New Energy, Singyes Solar announce far-reaching partnership
The companies will cooperate mainly on distributed generation projects next year with a combined target of at least 500 MW.
Tesla and Panasonic to construct battery 'Gigafactory'
Elon Musk’s pioneering electric vehicle company hopes that the factory will advance the mass market production of cost-effective lithium-ion batteries.
Sharp solar division suffers 97% drop in profit
A decline in sales of solar cells for residential use in Japan contributed largely to a plunge in earnings for the group’s Energy Solutions division.
Solar weighs on Kyocera figures
Japanese electronics corporation points to the end of residential subsidies in Japan and a drop-off in utility scale projects as negatives and no mention of solar is made in the upbeat forecasts for the next quarter.
Brazilian bank aims to boost domestic solar manufacturing
A BNDES solar project funding scheme will have various levels of local content requirement. From 2020 onwards, bank-funded schemes must include Brazilian cells.
