Uganda Launches Sophisticated Feed-in Tariff Program

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 21:58 (Renewable Energy World)

Last week it was Turkey. No newcomer to the concept, Turkey revised their program, expanding it modestly, and added a new twist with bonus payments for "Made in Turkey" products. Read more

SMA Sunny WebBox Now Boasts Bluetooth® Technology

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 18:01 (Renewable Energy World)

SMA's popular Sunny WebBox monitoring system is now capable of wireless operation via integrated Bluetooth® technology. In addition to continuously gathering PV array data, the Sunny WebBox with Bluetooth gives solar system owners the freedom to install or house the device in a variety of flexible configurations. Read more

centrotherm photovoltaics touts selective emitter line achieved 18.5% efficiencies

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 16:42 (PV-Tech)

An upgraded mono-crystalline solar cell line using selective emitter technology for customer, Dongfang Magi Solar has achieved 18.5% average efficiencies, according to centrotherm photovoltaics. Read more

Spire Corporation's CEO will be a Keynote Speaker at Photovoltaics Summit 2011 in Scottsdale, Arizona

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 16:02 (Renewable Energy World)

Spire Corporation (Nasdaq: SPIR), a global solar company providing capital equipment and turn-key manufacturing lines to produce photovoltaic (PV) modules and providing Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) integration services for solar systems, announced today its Chairman and CEO, Roger G. Little, will present "Low Cost Utility Solar Farms Using Supersized Modules" on Thursday, January 20, 2011 at the 6th Annual Photovoltaics Summit 2011 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Read more

Greenbang Research reports on the UK?s feed-in tariff: impact, response and market trends

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 11:06 (Solarpowerportal)

Greenbang Research has released the report, ‘the UK’s feed-in tariff: impact, response and market trends for the decade ahead,’ which offers detailed analysis on current figures and expected future trends of the UK renewable energy market, while also looking into how each of the supported technologies have reacted to the policy. Read more

German Government Warns of Deeper FIT Cuts

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 21:01 (Renewable Energy World)

The German government hasn't completely pulled the plug on its solar power subsidies yet. But it is definitely pulling hard on the cord. Read more

German government, solar industry association conclude FiT cut conundrum

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 18:41 (PV-Tech)

Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen and the German Solar Industry Association have agreed to bring forward the reductions of financial support for solar power in order to facilitate the further expansion of photovoltaics in Germany. The government revealed late last week that, together with the industry, it was set to bring in a reduction of up to 12%, which would be pulled forward six months to July 1st this year. Read more

Three companies have bids accepted to build Ordos plant

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 18:40 (PV-Tech)

Three companies have had bids accepted to build the 50MW Ordos solar thermal power plant in China. GD Power Development, China Datang and China Guangdong Nuclear Solar Energy Development were the successful bidders. Read more

Innotech Solar purchases stake in former REC module plant in Sweden

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 17:54 (PV-Tech)

After recently selling its PV module plant in Glava, Sweden to Perfekta Solar AB for approximately US$7 million, Innotech Solar has announced that it has purchased approximately a one third share in the facility. Financial details were not disclosed. Read more

Nur Energie gains license for Greek facility

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 17:52 (PV-Tech)

Nur Energie has received an electricity generation license for its new solar power plant on the Greek island of Crete. The Crete Concentrated Solar Power plant is a joint venture between Nur Energie and Motor Oil Hellas. Read more

Nur Energie to use BrightSource system for Greek project

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 17:51 (PV-Tech)

Nur Energie has received an electricity generation license for its new solar power plant on the Greek island of Crete. The Crete Concentrated Solar Power plant is a joint venture between Nur Energie and Motor Oil Hellas. Read more

Order Focus: GT Solar to supply sapphire crystallization furnaces to OCI

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 17:02 (PV-Tech)

South Korea-based OCI Company is entering the LED market with the purchase of sapphire crystallization furnaces from GT Solar. The furnace order is worth US$33.3 million order. GT Solar said that the order would be included in its backlog for its current Q4 FY11, which ends on April 2, 2011. Read more

ESSE finishes work on 5MW Italian project

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 16:56 (PV-Tech)

ESSE, the new joint venture between Sharp Solar Energy and Enel Green Power, has just finished work on its first PV plant. The 5MW ground-mounted system in the southern Italian town of Serragiumenta, has been fitted with Sharp modules and will generate about 7.5 million kWh a year. Read more

Venue for Solar Power UK Conference & Exhibition 2011 announced

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 16:49 (Solarpowerportal)

Birmingham has been announced as the host city for the annual Solar Power UK Conference and Exhibition in October 2011, which is organised by Solar Media Ltd. Over 3,000 solar industry participants, 30% of which will be overseas visitors, are due to descend on the city during the conference following sell-out events in Munich and London in 2010. Read more

DelSolar opens new headquarters in Zhunan

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 15:56 (PV-Tech)

DelSolar has opened its new headquarters in Zhunan, Taiwan. The site will house DelSolar?s research and development centre and it was officially unveiled with a traditional Chinese beam-raising ceremony ? symbolizing the completion of the construction phase. Read more

Chinese bank lending to solar firms dwarfs sector funding in 2010, says Mercom Capital

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 14:28 (PV-Tech)

Investments into solar industry companies were dwarfed by China-based banks in 2010, according to a new detailed report from Mercom Capital Group. Venture capital reached US$1.67 billion in 65 transactions, an 18% increase over the credit crunch period of 2009. Solar M&A transactions totalled US$2 billion in 44 deals. However, Mercom said that it had tracked over US$40 billion flowing into the sector in 2010 from Chinese banks. Read more

Engensa install UK?s first SolarEdge system

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 12:59 (Solarpowerportal)

Engensa recently installed the UK’s first micro-converter, a new technology that enables millions of otherwise unsuitable roofs to be used for solar PV by eliminating many of the problems associated with shading. The inverter was manufactured by SolarEdge, an Israeli-based leader in PV power optimization. Read more

SolarCity appoint Dan Foster as vice president of sales

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 12:37 (PV-Tech)

SolarCity has appointed Dan Foster as its new vice president of sales. Foster will be in charge of SolarCity?s national sales division and will report to report to CEO Lyndon Rive. Read more

Pure Power Advisors start $100M tax-equity fund for solar projects in California

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 0:50 (PV-Tech)

Pure Power Advisors has formed a new tax-equity fund known as the California Solar FIT Fund. The US$100 million tax-equity investment fund is geared towards ground-mounted solar projects throughout California and will supply funding for construction, completion, purchase and operation for qualified projects by means of a structured acquisition of projects from developers. The project acquisitions will use a financing structure influenced by Section 1603 Treasury grants or Section48 energy tax credits. Read more

Pure Power Advisors start US$100 million tax-equity fund for solar projects in California

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 0:50 (PV-Tech)

Pure Power Advisors has formed a new tax-equity fund known as the California Solar FIT Fund. The US$100 million tax-equity investment fund is geared towards ground-mounted solar projects throughout California and will supply funding for construction, completion, purchase and operation for qualified projects by means of a structured acquisition of projects from developers. The project acquisitions will use a financing structure influenced by Section 1603 Treasury grants or Section 48 energy tax credits. Read more

Martifer Solar signs deal with Sunflower to develop PV projects in Piedmont region of Italy

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 0:41 (PV-Tech)

Martifer Solar has entered into a binding agreement with Sunflower for the engineering, procurement, construction, operation and maintenance for 13MW of PV plants throughout the Piedmont regions of Italy. Martifer and Sunflower have previously worked together on two recently completed 2.1MW PV plants in the Province of Alessandria. Read more

Constellation Energy to develop two rooftop solar projects in Maryland

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 0:38 (PV-Tech)

Constellation Energy is in the process of developing two rooftop solar installations in Maryland, both funded partially by grants through the Maryland Energy Administration?s Project Sunburst initiative. The first installation is a 750kW solar project at Anne Arundel County?s Combined Support Services Complex in Millersville. The roof-mounted system will have around 3,060 crystalline PV solar panels and produce around 900,000kWh of electricity every year. Read more

Solon and Tucson Electric complete 1.6MW solar project

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 0:35 (PV-Tech)

Tucson Electric Power (TEP), in collaboration with Solon, has completed a 1.6MW solar power plant in Tucson, Arizona. Located at the University of Arizona?s Science and Technology Park, Solon oversaw the engineering, procurement and construction services for the installation. Built over fourteen acres and featuring Solon?s Velocity MW Solar System with eleven single axis trackers and 5,808 275W high-efficiency solar modules, the solar project will produce around 3,000,000kWh of energy in its first year and around 60,000,000kWh over the next twenty. Read more

Offshore Wind Booming in Europe

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 17:26 (Renewable Energy World)

With the U.S. still struggling to develop its first offshore wind project, other areas of the world are pulling ahead. Way ahead. Read more

Waste to Energy - the hot topic

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 21:11 (Renewable Energy World)

Sofia, Bulgaria will host the South East European Waste Management & Recycling Conference & Exhibition Save the Planet on 13-15 April 2011. The Netherlands will again be the partner country. Waste to Energy (w2e) will be the hot topic, focusing on Austria Read more

Hydro-Quebec Introducing Electric Vehicles

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 17:03 (Renewable Energy World)

The Canadian province of Quebec faces a challenge common among many countries: reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For example, in its Fifth U.S. Climate Action Report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, completed in 2010, the U.S. government concluded that GHG emissions increased by 17 percent from 1990 to 2007. Quebec has set a target of reducing GHG emissions to 20 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. The target for Canada as a whole is a 17 percent reduction from 2005 levels. Read more

Washington Gas Energy Services to supply electricity for Perdue sites

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 13:26 (PV-Tech)

Washington Gas Energy Services (WGES) has signed a 15-year power-purchase agreement to provide solar generated electricity for the poultry farmers Perdue. Construction is set to take place over the summer and be completed by September. Read more

U.S Department of Energy promotes two new initiatives in Tribal Energy Program

Thursday, 1.20.2011 - 0:43 (PV-Tech)

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has revealed two new initiatives that promote tribal energy development and a better partnership between the DOE and tribal nations. U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu advised that up to US$10 million will become available this year for the DOE?s Tribal Energy Program, which will go towards the evaluation, development and deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects on tribal lands. Read more