Strategic Alliances

The French industrial equipment manufacturer expects to almost double turnover in solar by 2023. The company supplies materials for ingot production as well as providing electrical protection solutions such as fuses, fuse holders, heatsinks, wire management, disconnect switches, laminated busbars and surge protective devices.

Solar PV, battery storage and artificial intelligence systems are at the core of a new utility model presented yesterday in London. pv magazine attended the launch event.

A team of scientists at Germany’s Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg has set an efficiency record of 12.25% for a non-fullerene based organic solar cell.

The high efficiency PV maker has already brought in all the tools for making its shingled P-Series product in Oregon, aiming to begin ramping in January.

In pv magazine’s recent webinar, JinkoSolar laid out the case for using bifacial modules in large-scale solar plants, and the opportunities and challenges this can bring for project developers. Listeners raised plenty of interesting questions during the webinar, and now Andrea Viaro, Head of Technical Services for Europe has taken the time to answer some of those we couldn’t fit in. Further questions from the webinar will be answered later this week.

The solar manufacturer and developer has joined forces with Singapore’s ISDN and plans to expand its battery operations in the region. Elsewhere though, Longitech’s latest fundraising exercise has fallen flat.

India’s Ministry of Science and Technology has reissued a plea for overseas solar companies to partner up with Indian concerns and kick-start production lines.

Venerable Swiss brand Leclanché is on an expansionist trail, notably in India and low-carbon shipping, but restructuring its debts will involve ceding even more control of the famous company to institutional investors.

Only three consortia are now competing to build huge solar park: one formed by Masdar, Total and Jinko; another led by Saudi energy company ACWA; and a third group of companies led by Japan’s Marubeni Corporation and the Oman Gas Company (OGC). The tender is expected to be finalized early next year.

Around US$1 billion is expected to be raised in the sale of up to 30% of Sterling & Wilson’s solar engineering arm. The funds will come from a pre-listing stake sale followed by an initial public offering (IPO), and will be used to reduce the debt of the 153-year-old conglomerate.