China Sunergy released its Q1 2012 results for which the company saw an expected net loss and shipments reaching the high end of previous guidance. Revenue for the quarter was US$68.5 million, a 38.2% drop from Q4 2011 results. The company noted that the decrease in revenue was due to a combination of falling ASP’s and shipments.

E-CL and Quiborax are teaming up to build a 2MW solar park, which will be the first to be connected to the Northern Interconnected System (SING) in Chile. The project will help provide electricity to mining development in the XV region of Arica and Parinacota.

Ideal Power Converters (IPC) advised that its 30kW PV inverter, IPV-30kW-480 had been confirmed by Intertek as conforming to UL standard 1741 and is now included on the California Energy Commission’s (CEC) list of approved PC inverter products. As part of the CEC list, IPC’s inverter can be installed in California and across the US.

As of May 18, Richard Peteka took over as Solar Capital’s CFO, following the resignation of Nicholas Radesca. Peteka comes to Solar Capital from Apollo Investment where he served as CFO and treasurer from June 2004 until February 2012. Peteka has also served as CFO for different closed-end and open-end registered investment companies for Citigroup Asset Management.

Executives at Martifer Solar USA advised that the company plans to exceed a 100MW project pipeline in 2012, and has an additional 30MW already signed. Martifer Solar expects to achieve its goal with plans to enter additional markets and continue its success with installations for schools, multi-site commercial projects, solar gardens and small utilities.

Late last week, Vermont’s Governor Shumlin signed the 2012 Energy Bill into law, which among other benefits saw the state’s CLEAN Program expand from 50MW to 127.5MW. The bill outlines that the capacity of any distributed generation facility that provides “sufficient benefits to the operation and management of the electric grid” because of its location or other characteristics will not count towards the overall program cap of 127.5MW. Thus, this portion of the legislation mandates that no limit exists on the amount of clean local energy produced from facilities providing locational benefits.

Israeli developer Arava Power Company has received funding for eight PV projects worth US$204 million in total, across Israel, the company has announced. In a statement, the company issued that it has closed deals on two PV plants in the Negev region, totaling 58MW. The company aims at installing over 400MW within Israel and completed the country’s largest solar park last June.

First generation PV thin-film adopters are falling like flies as Berlin-based Inventux files for bankruptcy. Inventux was a customer of Oerlikon Solar and an early adopter of its micromorph silicon turnkey technology. A temporary insolvency administrator has been appointed by the local court in Berlin-Charlottenburg, which is understood to be looking for new investors and secure some of the 200 jobs at risk at the company.

Although monthly revenue in the first 4-months of 2012 have yet to show any meaningful recovery, Taiwan-based Green Energy Technology (GET) said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that it was re-allocating operating resources away from a-Si thin film business to meet growing demand for its high-efficiency wafer business as demand is recovering. GET was an early customer of Applied Materials ‘SunFab’ turnkey thin film technology.

In anticipation of others to follow suit, Taiwan-based Motech Industries will be offering a ‘Solar Cell Certificate of Origin,’ to customers wanting to avoid the newly imposed import tariffs on Chinese solar cells and modules. Motech makes c-Si solar cells in Taiwan, which are excluded from the import duties as well as having a module assembly plant in Newark, Delaware.