Germany

With capital projects CIGSfab and CIGSlab – according to the PV equipment provider – on schedule, Manz expects big follow-up orders from its Chinese customers as solar provided the highlight of the parent company’s first-half figures.

At US$518.4 million, the quarterly turnover of the South Korean-German manufacturer was down 10.3% year-on-year, while its net result swung from a profit of $18.7 million in the second quarter of 2017, to a loss of $41.3 million in the latest quarter. Despite this, the outlook for full fiscal 2018 remains unchanged.

The project connecting Germany and Norway was first conceived in 2015. The 624 km undersea cable will have a capacity of 1.4 GW, when operational in 2020. The EU is supporting the project and other grid infrastructure projects through its EFSI scheme to interconnect the European energy markets, for better renewable energy integration and improved security of supply.

The heatwave across Western Europe saw wind power 20% lower than usual while solar irradiance was 20% above average, according to Vaisala, a provider of measurement systems and equipment for meteorology. If this balancing effect is confirmed by further analysis, the technologies may ensure future energy supply by providing a diversified, ‘climate-resilient’ portfolio.

In the first half of the year, the PV equipment manufacturer recorded a significant increase in sales. This was largely due to orders from the solar industry.

The German PV equipment provider has improved sales and results in the first half of the year. The company, however, received more orders from the semiconductor and microelectronics industries. In the next 12 months, centrotherm expects new orders from the Chinese solar industry.

The company reports having shipped 4.3 GW of PV inverter capacity, which marks a significant year-on-year increase. While revenues increased slightly, net income improved by a higher margin.

Circular Energy Storage, a London-based research and consulting group, reports a strong business case for reconstituted electric vehicle batteries for energy storage applications. As the EV and static storage system markets grow rapidly, synergies could be a useful tool for continued cost optimization.

A team of researchers from the Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin and University of Potsdam has been able to observe defects in a perovskite solar cell, and found that the largest efficiency losses occur at the interface between the perovskite and transport layer.

The Zahid Group has invested an undisclosed amount in Germany-based Greencells. A key focus for the latter will now be hybrid systems in the APAC and African regions. An update on the 1.2 GW Sweihan solar project in Abu Dhabi was also given.