Market & Trends

Greek module supplier Recom has announced plans to begin manufacturing modules in Italy, as of September this year. The strategy allows the company to circumvent widening anti dumping duties.

Chinese thin film aspirant Hanergy has completed another acquisition of a thin film developer. The Chinese dam building giant announced today that it had completed the acquisition of thin film solar startup Alta Devices.

International construction company Laing O’Rourke is developing a semi-portable solar/diesel hybrid array, with the aim of providing power to construction sites and semi-permanent mining operations.

Swiss PV equipment supplier Meyer Burger has announced a 43% YOY increase in sales for the first half of 2014. It has not saved the company from posting a 9% increase in net loss to CHF 88 million ($94 million).

Utility scale solar PV can achieve a LCOE of between USD$70 and $90/MWh in Saudi Arabia at present, according to French PV developer Solairedirect. This price is four times lower than it was in 2009, meaning PV electricity in the Kingdom could become the cheapest in the world.

Support for both large and small-scale solar installations in Australia look increasingly threatened as sounds from the federal government regarding the Renewable Energy Target (RET) turn from bad to worse. Both the Prime Minister and the review head are indicating that the RET is likely to be scaled back.

The boom in the Japanese PV couldn’t have come at a better time for CIGS producer Solar Frontier. In 2011, having completed construction and fit out of its 900 MW Kunitomi fab, it was faced with rapidly falling c-Si module prices and global PV module overcapacity. But on the back of two bumper years of demand in its home market, the manufacturer has integrated its downstream capabilities and has been running at “full blast” for around 18 months.

Japan has been and remains a booming PV market. In the last Japanese financial year, March 2012 through March 2013, over 7 GW of new PV capacity was installed in the country. But increasingly observers are asking, how long will the boom last? This is the first of pv magazine’s series based on discussions from the PV Japan 2014 trade show floor.

Not all Indian PV manufacturers are coming out in support of anti-dumping duties the government may impose to protect domestic manufacturers. Vikram Solar has spoken out against the recommended duties.

Majority state owned nuclear power plant developer Areva has announced plans to close its concentrated solar power (CSP) business.