Hong Kong

There was rare good news for the remaining independent shareholders of the state-controlled solar developer, as the overdue 2019 figures were finally published, with new auditor PwC shaving almost $15 million off a near-$540 million loss.

Negative second-quarter updates from China and uber-low new-solar figures from India, however, show the world is far from out of the woods yet.

The decision to remove its cell manufacturing capacity has prompted hefty impairment losses which, together with a Covid-19-related slump in demand, will wipe out the gains offered by new solar ingot, wafer and module production lines.

Whoever published the figures for a profit warning issued by the poly maker on Friday might have spooked investors even further with a stray decimal point.

But Israeli inverter company Solaredge and Indian engineering, procurement and construction services provider Sterling and Wilson have both offered hope of a recovery in Europe as Chinese glass producer Xinyi said it kept the furnaces going throughout the worst of the pandemic.

Li Hong, former chief finance officer of the now-state-owned Chinese solar developer has reportedly told Panda Green the information he gave KPMG investigators about $146 million of missing project rights payments ‘may not be accurate.’ He has refused to be interviewed again by the investigators.

The auditor cited the threat posed to the debt saddled business as the reason for resigning its role, effective from today.

The stunning findings of an investigation by the auditor into RMB1,022 million paid by Panda Green for the right to develop solar projects which never materialized included confirmation by the former chief finance officer documents were drawn up after the fact.

An international team has developed an integrated solar flow battery which has been suggested as ideal for off-grid locations. The device, which combines energy conversion and storage in one unit, can be used for lighting and recharging cell phones.

Plus, equipment manufacturer Shangji Automation is set to enter the silicon ingot making game with plans for an 8 GW fab, while state-owned developer Panda Green says it plans to add 500 MW of annual project capacity over the next three years.