Markets

Trina Solar is also suffering from the shaky solar market conditions. As such, it has revised its full year photovoltaic module shipment downwards.

Taking the wheel once again at First Solar, chairman of the board and interim CEO, Michal J Ahearn set out a new direction for the company in a conference call to discuss the company’s third quarter (Q3) results.

The U.K. Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee and Energy and Climate Change Committee has launched an inquiry into the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECCs) proposed photovoltaic feed-in tariff (FIT) cuts.

U.S. President Barak Obama has dipped into the debate surrounding the SolarWorld-sponsored “trade case” it, along with an unnamed coalition of U.S. manufacturers, has filed against Chinese manufacturers.

According to new research, photovoltaic wafer, cell and module capacity expansions are predicted to “slow dramatically” from now until the first half of 2012. It was also found that while supply of these products has grown by 54 percent since the start of the year, demand has only increased by 19 percent.

BTU International Inc. which, among other products, produces thermal processing equipment for solar cells, has experienced a weak third quarter Q3 2011. The results were said to have been primarily affected by the weak solar market. It has also announced staff layoffs.

Thin-film module manufacturer First Solar has inaugurated today its second plant (FF02) at its Frankfurt (Oder) site in Germany’s east. The plant will have a capacity of 250 megawatts (MW) a year, bringing the company’s capacity at the site to 500 MW.

Just days after the halving of photovoltaic feed-in tariff (FIT) rates was announced by the U.K. Government, an installer has reported a rush on modules meaning that orders cannot be completed before the six-week FIT cutoff date.

The Asia Pacific PV Expo closed on a positive note today as the pre-monsoon rain drizzled outside the Marina Bay Sands convention center. The numbers were perhaps not as high as what many exhibitors had expected, but the companies present told pv magazine it was the quality of the visitors who stopped by their booths, and not the quantity that counted.

Refusing to be intimidated by scandal-starved Republicans, the Obama Administration pushed back on October 28 – not only declining to provide more documentation on the spectacular collapse of the California-based solar company, Solyndra LLC, but also mandating its own independent, 60-day review of Energy Department loans.