United States

U.S. high efficiency specialist Alta Devices has announced the achievement of a 28.9% efficient single junction cell, based on its lightweight gallium arsenide (GaAs) technology. Alta’s solar cells are designed for integration into unmanned air vehicles and other autonomous systems.

The company reports that its IoT ABB Ability platform connects to existing GE Industrial Solutions’ installations. The company will supply its products to GE, with the GE brand name being retained. Access to the North-American market was named as one of the primary motivators for the acquisition. At the same time, the company inked a deal to support Be Power in the Italian market for dispatching services with its ABB Ability solution.

The suggestion of additional investments beyond the $1.6 billion follows reports of battery cell shortages as Tesla’s Model 3 picks up production. It is unknown what impacts this will have on Tesla’s stationary storage business.

REC Silicon ASA has announced that it will today lay off around 100 employees from its workforce based in Washington, the U.S., and reduce production, as a “direct result” of the trade dispute between the U.S. and China.

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited has been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, and expects to begin trading on the OTC Pink on July 2, where there are no disclosure requirements.

More and more corporations are signing contracts with wind and solar projects, and as this happens the space is becoming broader and more complex.

The upstream technology company plans to sell silicon carbide for applications including advanced inverters for solar and battery storage, as part of a new emphasis on materials supply.

Finnish-based energy-solution provider, Wärtsilä has signed an agreement with automobile producer, Hyundai Motor Group to establish a commercial partnership for the use of second-life electric vehicle (EV) batteries in storage solutions.

LG Electronics has announced plans for a 500 MW/year solar module manufacturing facility in Huntsville, Alabama. The facility will assemble the manufacturer’s 19.8% efficient NeON2 60-cell 340-W panels for residential applications.

Inverter manufacturers tapped into the major theme of digitization in their product presentations at this year’s Smarter E event in Munich – of which Intersolar Europe is a part of. The solutions deploy smart software solutions for maximizing self-consumption, O&M provision and enable hybrid architectures across all three market segments.