REC Solar

The production of PV ingots and wafers remains the most highly concentrated of all the production stages in the silicon solar supply chain. Yet efforts to re-establish production in Europe and the United States are not for the faint-hearted.

The US Patent Trial and Appeal Board has issued a favorable decision for Hanwha Q Cells over REC Solar’s patent claims. The court has ruled that the contested claims of REC’s US patent were not patentable. The decision is similar to those in courts in China and Europe, according to Q Cells.

REC Solar has announced plans for a PV module gigafactory in France, along with 17 other clean tech projects that will share €1.8 billion ($1.8 billion) of grants from the European Union’s Innovation Fund.

Mumbai-based Reliance Industries and REC Solar have declined to comment on rumors that the Indian company might acquire the Norwegian PV module maker, in a potential transaction that Indian media outlets have already valued at $1 billion to $1.2 billion.

Korean solar manufacturer Hanwha Q Cells has told pv magazine a Dutch court which gave it permission to seize a shipment of solar products made by Chinese rival Longi Solar at the warehouse of a storage keeper last month, has confirmed Longi can reclaim the PV products upon proof they will not be distributed in European markets where a Hanwha technology patent applies.

The Chinese solar giant today announced a final written decision published by the American authorities which reportedly invalidates Hanwha Q Cells patents. That development appears to have come 12 days after the Korean manufacturer carried out a seizure of a Longi panel shipment in Rotterdam on the basis of the potential for the infringement of Hanwha patents which apply in Europe.

A shipment of modules from the Chinese solar manufacturer was reportedly seized in the Netherlands last month on the orders of Korean rival Hanwha Q Cells, which persuaded a Dutch court the products might be distributed in third-party nations in infringement of one of its European patents.

The Düsseldorf Regional Court has agreed rivals of the Korean manufacturer illegally used its patented passivation technology. The judges granted Hanwha Q-Cells an injunction which requires Jinko, REC and Longi to retrieve all modules featuring the patented technology distributed in Germany since late January last year. Hanwha can also opt to have the offending products destroyed.

Longi Solar has dramatically stepped in to take over fellow Chinese manufacturer Zhejiang Yize New Energy Technology, which operates 7 GW of module production capacity and 3 GW of cell facilities in northern Vietnam.

Two projects have been deployed by Canopy Power on private islands in Indonesia. The two 52.5 kW/77 kWh mini-grids were the only alternative to diesel generators due to the lack of a connection with the grid on the island of Batam. The projects – which rely on REC Solar modules, SMA inverters and a storage system from Tesvolt – provide around half of the energy required on their respective islands.