Modules & Upstream Manufacturing

The German chemical company has said in its preliminary results for the first quarter of this year that polysilicon prices dropped significantly over the past weeks. Overall, the company expects to see its profits grow in 2017.

Yesterday Suniva filed for “relief” under a little-known legal provision that would allow the president to take action normally not permitted to protect a domestic industry from imports. pv magazine sought Jigar Shah’s perspective on this case and possible outcomes, and it frankly doesn’t look good.

Researchers from NREL, Fraunhofer ISE and Japan’s AIST have released a new paper which looks at the barriers to deploying multiple terawatts of solar PV and what can be done to overcome them.

Two weeks after laying off 131 employees without notice and closing its module plant in Michigan, one of the largest U.S. solar manufacturers has filed for bankruptcy.

Thin film: First Solar is moving to a much larger format for its Series 6 modules, which are due to begin production next year. Is this the signal that the thin film industry has been looking for to move to larger formats?

The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission partnered with the California company to recall PV modules that could overheat and catch fire, though no incidents or injuries have been reported.

In the latest news for the troubled cell and module maker, former employees have filed a class-action suit alleging the company violated provisions of the federal WARN Act by laying off employees in Michigan and Georgia without notice.

One of the pillars of Donald Trump’s election campaign was his pledge to protect the U.S. manufacturers from unfair competition. While it is still unclear whether he will follow through with his threats to increase import taxes on Chinese goods, SolarWorld took the opportunity of the historic meeting between President Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to harangue China’s solar manufacturers and called for the issue of solar dumping to be raised.

Schmid and MacDermid have been selected as pv magazine’s 2017 Technology Highlights award winners. In late March, the prize jury of industry experts met to select the winners, from a shortlist of eight innovative new PV production equipment and materials. Dozens of entries to the award were received from suppliers worldwide. Alongside the two winners, the jury selected Sinton Instruments as worthy of special commendation as having provided the ‘Technology to Watch’ in 2017.

The state of Georgia says 131 workers were let go yesterday, and local officials in Michigan have confirmed that Suniva’s module plant in Saginaw Township is now closed.