Robert Bosch Gmbh, the German supplier of technology and services, part of the Bosch Group, has decided to pull out of the crystalline solar business due to unattainable competitiveness in the solar market. As a consequence, the company will divest its 90% stake in the solar equipment manufacturer Aleo Solar.
Panasonic recently announced the company has established Panasonic Eco Solutions North America. The new business unit of Panasonic Corporation of North America will put focus on renewable energy projects, with activities involving everything from design and implementation to financing of RE project as well as energy efficiency projects. Activities will cover the US and Canada as the primary markets.
DONG Energy has signed an agreement to sell 50% of the offshore wind farm Borkum Riffgrund 1 in the German North Sea to KIRKBI (parent company of LEGO), and the Oticon Foundation. The amount involved in this agreement is DKK 4.7 billion (EUR 630 million). KIRBI will own 32% of the project, while the Oticon Foundation will own 18% of the project.
DuPont and Yingli Green Energy (Yingli Solar) have ented into a USD 100 million strategic agreement for PV materials, which will help speed up the adoption of solar energy in the global energy market. Under the agreement, DuPont will supply Yingli with critical, high-quality materials, as well as collaborate with the company on further technological advancements.
Siemens has increased its stake in the UK based marine energy technology company Marine Current Turbines. Now owning a majorty stake in the company, Siemens will continue with the drive towars commercialization of the new technology for harnessing energy from marine currents. As this renewable energy market segment evolves, Siemens wants to make sure the company holds a leading position in the future.
JinkoSolar, based in China, has added a new subsidiary in Australia. JinkoSolar Australia is based in Queensland, and will serve as a sales and delivery hub for the Australian market, housing about 5 MW of modules for the region.
Vestas announced a reorganization of the company's activities in order to reduce fixed costs by more than EUR 150 million, which is to reach full effect near the end of 2012. Most of the cost cutting measures include streamlining of support functions in the company, but also through closing of factories in accordance with the state of demand in the wind energy market in the coming months.
Vestas has closed 2011 with several orders for its wind turbines, amounting to about 560 MW of capacity. The orders from from various markets, including Pakistan, the company's first in this Asian country. Still, even though the company has had a successful year in terms of order intake, totalling about 7.4 GW, the revenue for 2011 still had to be downgraded by about EUR 400 million to be about EUR 6 billion. The company also encountered some unexpected costs in its development activities involving the V112-3.0 MW and the GridStreamer technology for the 2 MW family of turbines.
Tata Power has entered into a shares purchase agreement with BP Alternative Holdings for the acquisition of BP's 51% of shares in the Tata BP Solar joint venture. This effectively puts Tata Power as the sole owner of Tata BP Solar.
SunPower has entered into a definitive agreement with Total for the acquisition of Tenesol, a wholly owned subsidiary of Total. SunPower is paying USD 164.5 million in cash for this acquisition, while at the same time Total will purchase 18.6 million shares of SunPower common stock. Once Tenesol is in ownership of SunPower, Total will own about 66% of SunPower's common shares.
