Magazine Archive

Module prices: At the moment module prices are stable on the spot market. However, suppliers of wafers and polycrystalline silicon have announced price increases.

Lead times: The time between ordering and the delivery of solar modules, inverters, mounting systems and cabling is further decreasing.

China: “With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown”, says a Chinese proverb. Investing in China indeed seems to require a great deal of patience, but it is still not clear how the country wants to develop its domestic PV market. What should foreign investors be prepared for? And to what extent can the wind industry serve as a guide?

Dear readers, The mood of a winner looks somewhat different. The political headwind for renewable energies and photovoltaic technologies in the still most economically powerful country in the world, the U.S., is becoming more turbulent. Needless to say, voters in the midterm elections put numerous conservative congressional representatives and governors into office who have a […]

Interview: pv magazine asked Stuart Brannigan, managing director of Yingli Green Energy Europe, about the international environment in which the China-based company is operating.

Interview: Murphy & Spitz advises investors and manages sizeable investments for them in renewable energies. The company has now released an environmental analysis of manufacturing processes at six PV manufactures. Nicole Vormann, author of the study, sums up the findings: sometimes the companies have serious catching up to do.

Interview: Small and midsize module manufacturers often are left sitting on their products when banks do not have enough confidence in them. Steffen A. Müller of Trust, a risk management and insurance broker, explains why his firm is focusing on this problem, and why bankers do not openly talk about the issue. While his explanations specifically refer to the legal situation in Germany, there are similar issues abroad.

Dear readers, Is the PV industry innovative enough? Over the past few months, the German solar industry in particular faced such public criticism. PV execs were charged with being too lazy, only having an eye on quick returns and investing too little in innovations thanks to Germany’s generous feed-in tariffs. Politicians were able to use […]

Thin film photovoltaics: As the first photovoltaic equipment supplier worldwide, Roth & Rau has developed a turnkey plant for cadmium telluride modules. In cooperation with a Chinese partner, the enterprise is going to build a reference factory in east Germany. Later, Roth & Rau will sell its plant to solar companies and investors outside of the branch. As such the thin film market will be changeable for a long time to come.