IHS iSuppli details first PV inverter cost teardown analysis

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 16:30 (PV-Tech)

Market research firm, IHS iSuppli has undertaken its first product teardown and analysis within the PV industry. An Aurora PVI-4.2-OUTD-S-US Inverter from Power-One was used in the teardown, which IHS iSuppli said provided a path-setting benchmark for cost reduction within a sector of the industry expected to undergo rapid price erosion, inline with other industry sectors such as polysilicon, wafers, cells and modules. Read more

Prologis, SCE build 4.9MW-DC rooftop PV plant in California

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 15:55 (Solarserver)

On December 15th, 2011 Prologis Inc. (Denver, Colorado, U.S.) and Southern California Edison Company (SCE, Rosemead, California, U.S.) announced that they have installed a 4.9MW-DC solar photovoltaic (PV) plant on the roof of a Kimberly-Clark Corporation (Irving, Texas, U.S.) distribution center in Redlands, California. The new PV plant expands on a 100 kW PV rooftop PV plant installed on the facility in 2009. The new plant covers 33,000 square meters of roof space on the 65,000 square meter facility, as one of the largest rooftop PV plants in the United States. Read more

CPV Outlook 2012: The Only Way to Go is Up

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 15:24 (Renewable Energy World)

The third quarter of 2011 was the concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) industry's best one yet, say analysts. Four MW of the technology, spread out over three projects, were installed mostly in the Southwestern U.S. More CPV is expected to go online by year's end or early in 2012, including Cogentrix's 30-MW Alamosa Solar Generating Project, which was awarded a U.S. $90 million loan guarantee in September. Read more

Concentrator photovoltaics: Soitec purchases manufacturing facility in San Diego to locally produce CPV modules for the U.S. renewable energy market

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 13:03 (Solarserver)

Soitec (Bernin, France) has purchased a manufacturing facility in Rancho Bernardo, Calif., within San Diego City limits, and will soon begin fitting the factory to produce its concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules for the U.S. renewable-energy market, the company announces in a press release. The site, acquired from Sony Electronics Inc., will enable a manufacturing capacity of 200 megawatts (MW) of Soitec?s fifth generation "Concentrix" CPV modules and with future expansion to double the capacity to 400 MW per year. Read more

Organic solar cells: Imec, Polyera and Solvay set 8.3% efficiency world record with inverted device architecture

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 11:06 (Solarserver)

Imec (Leuven, Belgium), Polyera SKOKIE, IL, USA) and international chemical group Solvay (Brussels, Belgium) on December 15th, 2011 announced a new world-record efficiency of 8.3% for polymer-based single junction organic solar cells (OPV) in an inverted device stack. These excellent performance results represent a crucial step towards successful commercialization of organic photovoltaic cells, the partners emphasize. Read more

California Public Utilities Commission approves 444MW in PV power purchase agreements

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 22:06 (PV-Tech)

The California Public Utilities Commission has approved another batch of power purchase agreements between Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison and developers/investors for solar power plant projects totaling up to 444MW of installed capacity. The projects include Sempra Generation?s 150MW Copper Mountain Solar 2 project in Boulder City, NV (25-year PPA, PG&E), Tenaska/CSolar Development?s 96-150MW Imperial Solar Energy Center West being developed near El Centro, CA (25-year PPA, SDG&E), and 15 smaller projects with 20-year PPAs totaling 144MW under development by various independent power producers (IPPs) in SCE?s service Read more

SolarCity installs Hawaii?s largest PV system

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 17:20 (PV-Tech)

SolarCity, in partnership with Honolulu Builders, has installed one of the largest on-site renewable power centres in Maui, Hawaii. Read more

solarhybrid starts work on first phase of 123MW Vega plant

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 17:17 (PV-Tech)

solarhybrid AG has started construction work on the first 39MW installation phase of its 123MW Vega solar power plant in Italy. The initial development stage will involve laying foundations, assembling module plates, building transformer stations and connecting the medium voltage line to the feed-in point. Read more

NLP Solar Sales Training Live Webinar January 11th & 12th

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 17:03 (Renewable Energy World)

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New additions to Hanwha SolarOne?s management team

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 16:36 (PV-Tech)

Vertically integrated manufacturer, Hanwha SolarOne, has announced that its board of directors has appointed new members to the company?s senior management. Previous board member Hee Cheol Kim, has been appointed president, where he will oversee the general management of the company, including R&D, sales and marketing. Ki-Joon Hong has been made chairman of the board of directors and CEO to oversee the company?s overall strategy. Read more

Worlds Apart: The Growing Complexity Behind the Solar Trade Dispute

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 16:04 (Renewable Energy World)

On one side is the camp that says we must ride cheap solar panels all the way to grid parity. On the other side are those who contend such an approach will only hand China the keys to the solar industry. Read more

High Court approves legal challenge to solar PV FIT cuts

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 13:09 (Solarserver)

On December 15th, 2011 the U.K.'s High Court gave permission for Solar Century Holdings Ltd. (London, U.K.), HomeSun Holdings Ltd. (Wembley, U.K.) and Friends of the Earth U.K. (London, U.K.) to proceed with legal challenges to the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) over the timing of feed-in tariff (FIT) cuts. Read more

Local Government Association: U.K. solar PV FIT cut will lead to higher bills for social housing residents

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 13:05 (Solarserver)

On December 12th, 2011 the U.K.'s Local Government Association (LGA) stated that thousands of low-income families living in social housing will face higher electricity bills in 2012 due to the recent cut to the nation's feed-in tariff (FIT) for solar photovoltaic (PV) generation. The LGA notes that many housing councils were forced to cancel contracts after the Conservative government gave only six weeks' notice for the FIT cuts. Recent poll numbers published by the Sunday Times show that 74% of Britons surveyed think the government should be looking to use more solar power. Read more

Solarhybrid receives lease, permitting approval for 150 MW PV plant at former military airport in Brandenburg, Germany

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 13:01 (Solarserver)

On December 15th, 2011 Solarhybrid AG (Brilon, Germany) announced that it has secured a real estate agreement and planning approval for the use of a former military airport in Neuhardenberg, Brandenburg, Germany to build a 150 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant. Solarhybrid states that the site will be ready for construction by the end of July 2012, and expects to complete the plant in December 2012. This is Solarhybrid's second partnership with Airport Development A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark), following the Fürstenwalde project. Read more

China increases installed PV capacity target for 2015 to 15GW

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 12:01 (PV-Tech)

China has upwardly revised its solar power development target for 2015 by 50%. The new target set by the National Energy Administration (NEA) for installed capacity is 15GW. Read more

PV in Paraguay: meeco América Latina finalizes first 4 kWp off-grid installation including 16 kWh storage for water pumping

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 11:46 (Solarserver)

meeco América Latina S.A., the Asunción-based and fully owned subsidiary of Swiss-based meeco Group, has commissioned its very first solar powered off-grid installation in South America and the first of its kind in Paraguay. Local cattle breading company Riacho-í S.A., contracted meeco for the PV project located near Rio Verde, in the Chaco region, Presidente Hayes province. While the solar PV system will be used for demonstration purposes and research, it also supplies daytime and nighttime power directly to the main farm offices, significantly reducing its fuel costs. Read more

MidAmerican Energy to buy 49% interest in Agua Caliente PV plant from NRG

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 21:03 (PV-Tech)

In its second major investment in the solar sector this month, MidAmerican Energy Holdings has signed a deal with NRG Energy to buy a 49% interest in the Agua Caliente project under construction in Yuma County, AZ. The Berkshire Hathaway unit announced Dec. 7 that it had purchased the 550MW Topaz solar farm project in San Luis Obispo County, CA, from First Solar. Read more

Let's Spend Our Energy Developing an Energy Policy

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 16:48 (Renewable Energy World)

As a nation, we are spending way too much energy arguing about energy. With all the energy-related debates going on today about everything from environmental regulations to the role of government subsidies, it is time to step back and remember that all of us in the energy space share many of the same long-term objectives. We ultimately want to develop new technologies, cleaner energy and a more robust grid while using energy more efficiently. If we can join together and focus our energy on supporting a balanced national energy policy, we can achieve the goal of a cleaner, more secure energy future. Read more

U.S. Senate Committee holds hearing on alternative energy tax incentives

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 15:55 (Solarserver)

On December 14th, 2011 the U.S. Senate Finance Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources & Infrastructure held a hearing on the potential impacts of extending alternative energy tax incentives, including the Section 1603 Treasury Grant Program. The hearing comes as a number of national environmental organizations including the Sierra Club (San Francisco, California, U.S.) and National Resources Defense Council (Washington D.C., U.S.) signed onto a letter by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA, Washington D.C., U.S.) calling on the U.S. Congress to extend the Section 1603 program for another year. Read more

Modular growth: New report predicts global module shipments to exceed 43GW by 2015

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 13:26 (PV-Tech)

IDC Energy Insights has released its findings for the PV module market over the next four years. The firm?s encouraging figures are forecasting that on a global scale, PV module shipments will rise from their current 22.7GW level (2011) to 43.8GW in 2015. Read more

Two thirds of Britons fear that the elderly cannot afford to stay warm this winter

Friday, 12.16.2011 - 12:26 (Solarpowerportal)

A new survey, released by Friends of the Earth, shows that 66 percent of Britons are concerned about their elderly friends and relatives this winter in light of recent energy price increases. Read more