Siva Power has raised US$5 million, in a series D round, to construct a pilot line for its CIGS PV technology. The line will be installed at the company’s Santa Clara base.

German CIGS developer Avancis has achieved an efficiency of 17.9% with its CIGS technology. The company hit the conversion efficiency on a 30 cm x 30 cm mini module, with the company claiming the technology could be translated into a 170 Wp 1m2 standard-sized module.

German PV and polysilicon production equipment supplier centrotherm has returned to profit in 2015, and has reported strong solar orders in Q1 2016. The company expects to “at least” break even in 2016, despite delays to a polysilicon project depressing revenues.

Hanwha Q Cells has published its 2015 annual report today, in which the advantages of bringing together its German and Malaysian Q Cells and Chinese SolarOne manufacturing were demonstrated. Booking a profit of $44 million, on sales of $1.8 billion, the harmonization of its ingot through module operations, and more-recent capacity expansions see the company well situated in 2016.

Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have achieved a world record conversion efficiency of 7.6% for a 1cm2 copper zinc tin sulfide (CZTS) solar cell. Japan’s Solar Frontier, with IBM and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo, have previously achieved 12.6%, however on a smaller 0.42cm2 substrate.

Schmid has announced that three PV research institutes have deployed its APCVD solution for the development of PERL (passivated emitter and rear locally diffused) and IBC cells. The high efficiency cell concepts can employ the APCVD tool for boron and phosphorus diffusion.

German inspection equipment provider Vitronic has reported double-digit growth in Q1 2016, on a quarter-on-quarter basis. The positive start to the year should see the company meet or exceed its “strong” 2015 result.

Israeli developer of module cleaning robots Ecoppia has announced that it will begin manufacturing its E4 units in India. Production is scheduled to commence in Q3. Eccopia company will partner with major OEM manufacturer Sanmina.

An Australian electricity network owner will trial the provision of solar+storage in a suburban setting to see whether 14 homes can form a mini grid, to deliver grid and savings on customer utility bills. AusNet is running the trial in the city of Melbourne that will see one street become a self-sufficient mini grid.

PV cells produced through kerfless design processes continue to make strides. The latest comes from Belgium research body imec, which has partnered with Crystal Solar to achieve 22.5% efficient n-type PERT cells, using a gas-to-wafer kerfless production process.