Western Europe

German technology group Heraeus and U.S. company Materion Advanced Materials have announced the completion of the latter’s acquisition of the target materials business belonging to Heraeus.

Grupo Clavijo and MFV Solar have reached a merger agreement to form NCLAVE, with the financial support of Q-Growth Fund, to become “the world leader in the design, manufacture and installation of structures and trackers for the solar photovoltaic market,” the companies say.

German solar research institute Fraunhofer ISE has reclaimed the multicrystalline PV cell efficiency record, achieving 21.9%. Fraunhofer researchers deployed n-type high-performance multicrystalline technology to produce the record-setting PV cell.

Interview: In December Energy Democracy, a book telling the story of Germany’s Energiewende from the perspective of citizen ownership of renewable energy, hit the shelves. The book is the latest collaboration of Political Scientist Arne Jungjohann and renewable energy writer Craig Morris, currently a senior fellow at the IASS in Potsdam, who worked together on the German Energy Transition website (energytransition.de). pv magazine caught up with Jungjohann to talk about the book, and why citizen involvement in energy is important.

Last year was a goody for German solar inverter manufacturer, by posting recording breaking sales figures alongside a rise in EBIT, however, the increase in price pressure in 2016 saw revenues fall, while this trend is expected to continue in 2017.

Storage specialist Eos Energy this week announced a partnership with Siemens to integrate, install and service large-scale energy storage solutions.

Vortex, a renewable energy investment platform managed by Egypt’s EFG Hermes, to purchase TerraForm Power’s 365 MW U.K. solar portfolio for £470 million.

James Hansen has played a very important role in publicizing the dangers of Climate Change. But his remarks on renewable energy show that he is not well informed on the current state of wind, solar and grid integration.

German renewable energy developer has acquired international PV power and storage specialist Belectric for a sum in the double-digit million dollar range, company comfirms.

Using 1366’s groundbreaking kerfless silicon wafers and Hanwha’s proprietary PERC cell process, the cells’ remarkable performance was verified by an independent testing firm.