Manufacturing

Germany-based Conergy has announced it is the “world’s first” solar company to offer Europe-wide output insurance, which is designed to provide customers with, among other things, ten-year protection against output decreases stemming from components or configuration defects, degradation and the delamination of modules. It is only available to Conergy customers.

IBC Solar has opened an official Czech Republic subsidiary, IBC Solar s.r.o., in Prague today. The subsidiary will be managed by Gerhard Travnicek, and will take over the activities of the company’s Prague branch office.

Photovoltaics (PV) project developers must create their own formulas for tackling a fragmented market – and they have to do it while dealing with the fast-paced changes in technologies and polices. That was the sentiment expressed by a panel discussion held in the U.S. last week, which was organized, in part, by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Trina Solar.

Phaesun has started a €300,000, two-year rural electrification project in Mozambique, in order to provide electricity to the people of Pessene, located around 50 kilometers from the country’s capital, Maputo.

Germany-based juwi Solar has said it will create 500 new jobs until 2012. Almost half of them will be located in Germany, which is currently the company’s “most important” market.

Greece’s Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change has signed two new Ministerial Decisions, which have helped to “satisfy some of the photovoltaics (PV) sector’s demands regarding the uplift of certain legal-administrative barriers”, according to PV Legal.

Schott Solar and Solland Solar have signed a partnership agreement that comprises technology license agreements, joint research and development efforts and joint production for back-contacted solar modules.

Phoenix Solar AG is set to build a 2.2 megawatt (MW) Slovakian solar park following an agreement with green energy slovakia, s.r.o. This, says the company, will be its first project as general contractor in the country.

Sharp is expanding its European photovoltaics (PV) production after announcing that PV is one of the company’s “core” business fields. It added that turnover in the solar segment has increased by 65.7 percent to €533 million in the first quarter of this year, in comparison with the same period last year.

SunPower has announced that up to 1,000 local jobs are expected to be created after the company was selected to install a “minimum” of 20 megawatts (MW) worth of new solar projects at several U.S. government properties, including the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), the General Services Administration (GSA), the Navy and the Air Force.