Picking up the fab
Inverter manufacturing: Insolvencies, job cuts and tumbling revenues have marred Europes solar inverter landscape, prompting the question: Are the days of inverter manufacturing in high-cost locations over? pv magazine discovers theres no simple answer to that rather straightforward question.
Regional solar PV manufacturing trends
PV manufacturing: Paula Mints, Founder and Chief Analyst of SPV Market Research, on the global PV manufacturing and shipping trends of the last ten years.
A long guessing game
US antidumping and countervailing duties: Years of uncertainty lie ahead in the US-China-Taiwan PV products trade dispute. Gary W. Glisson, a partner of the US business law firm Stoel Rives LLP, gives an overview of the proceedings.
Role model for energy generation
Bangladesh: With distributed generation disrupting traditional energy supply models as the world seeks to keep climate change below the critical two degrees Celsius benchmark, analysts are predicting 2015 could be a tipping point for the switch from fossil fuels to renewables. The role model for the energy mix of tomorrow could be found in a surprising quarter.
Backsheet to the future
Backsheet trends: Jolywoods recent acquisition of Italys Filmcutter can potentially boost both the fluoropolymer and PET-based backsheet industries globally, but beyond M&A growth, what other trends are driving the development and attractiveness of the backsheets sector?
Solars battle to plug in
UK electricity market reform: Billed as an effective means of decarbonizing the UKs economy, the EMR has faced accusations of favoritism and creating an uneven playing field for renewables. Solar PV in particular has suffered, but as the technology evolves and the market grows independently, change may soon come from the bottom up.
Boost from Asia
NYSE Bloomberg Solar Energy Index: The index receives support from China and India. Top-weighted Hanergy drives positive performance.
The rise of Chinese poly producers
Ranking polysilicon producers: Prices have rebounded from previous lows and companies are adding capacity through new plants or debottlenecking. Fluidized bed reactor processes continue to rise as do a number of fast-growing Chinese suppliers.
Bright prospects
India market update: Indian solar installations totaled 883 MW in 2014. Raj Prabhu, CEO and cofounder of the clean energy research and consulting firm Mercom Capital, forecasts a record year for 2015.
Business in fast forward
APRD: Solar energy is just the starting point for the clean tech investments of a Hong Kong billionaire. Götz Fischbeck, CEO of Smart Solar Consulting, analyzes the solar success story of Cheng Kin Ming, the Chairman and Founder of APRD Asia Pacific Resources Development Investment Ltd.
