Q-Cells launches independent production of its Q.Peak module on its new 130MW production line

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 23:54 (PV-Tech)

Ten years to the day that Q-Cells manufactured its first solar cell, the company has revealed that it is independently launching production of its Q.Peak high-performance module at its Solar Valley Thalheim headquarters. The new production line was commissioned on July 25 holding a 130MWp production capacity and will produce the Q.Peak modules from monocrystalline solar cells made in Germany. Read more

Merck teams with Nano-C to make OPV materials

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 19:40 (PV-Tech)

Collaboration between Merck and Nano-C is intended to bring about breakthroughs in nanostructured fullerene derivatives and semiconducting material formulations that overcome performance limitations of existing organic photovoltaics (OPV) materials. Merck?s Chilworth Technical Centre, near Southampton, UK is heading up the research. Read more

DuPont ?future-proofs? with acquisition of silicon ink innovator

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 18:44 (PV-Tech)

Silicon ink innovator Innovalight has been acquired by DuPont. The acquisition would ?expedite? the adoption of both silicon ink and selective emitter solar cells with higher efficiencies by c-Si PV manufacturers, DuPont said in a statement. Innovalight has already garnered some Tier 1 PV manufacturers as customers, including JA Solar, Yingli Green and Hanwha SolarOne. DuPont is a major supplier of metallization pastes under its ?Solamet? brand. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Read more

Sector-wide Shuffle for China's PV Industry as Period of High Profit Closes

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 18:30 (Renewable Energy World)

The global photovoltaic (PV) market reached US$50 billion in 2010, spurring the rapid growth of China's PV industry. However, its high profitability is coming to an end. Local manufacturers of solar battery modules are likely to enter a price war as PV modules face further price erosion due to subsidy reductions worldwide and a domestic oversupply since earlier this year. Read more

Conergy PowerPlus modules ?exceed all expectations?

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 12:58 (Solarpowerportal)

Conergy PowerPlus modules exceeded performance expectations in a real-life test by installation partner Freewatt, which recorded a surplus of 15% efficiency when monitoring two separate ~3.9kW Lincolnshire installations over nine months. Read more

SunPower and Capstone commission 20 MW PV plant in Ontario

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 12:26 (Solarserver)

On July 21st, 2011, SunPower Corporation (San Jose, California, U.S.) and Capstone Infrastructure Corporation (Toronto, Canada) celebrated the completion of the 20 MW Amherstburg Solar Park in Amherstburg, Canada. The one square kilometer solar photovoltaic (PV) plant was commissioned on June 30th, 2011. SunPower designed and built the plant, which features SunPower PV modules. Read more

Yingli PV module achieves second place in TÜV module test

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 12:25 (Solarserver)

On July 21st, 2011, Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Ltd. (Baoding, China) announced that its multicrystalline solar photovoltaic (PV) module has ranked second best out of 13 modules in TÜV Rheinland's (Köln, Germany) "2010 Energy Yield Test". The company states that its module generated an energy yield of 1.4% higher than the average level of modules submitted by 11 different manufacturers, and only 0.3% less than the top performer. Read more

MTI leads £650k investment round in BIPV company OPV

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 11:29 (Solarpowerportal)

In a bid to build on its commercial team and scale up its ‘demonstrator’ product manufacturing, MTI Partners has completed a £650,000 investment round in Oxford Photovoltaics (OPV), an Oxford University spin-out Materials/Cleantech company developing solid-state dye sensitized solar cells for the building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) sector. Read more

Amonix, Thermax partner to bring CPV technology, EPC services to India

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 23:40 (PV-Tech)

In an effort to help India meet its Solar Mission goal of 1000MW of grid-connected solar power projects by 2013, Thermax Limited and Amonix signed a new deal to bring CPV technology to India. Under the partnership, Amonix will provide its solar power generation systems while Thermax will act as the engineering, procurement and construction partner for the customer?s turnkey solutions. Read more

Aecom report finds a streamlined solar permitting process could help strengthen California?s economy

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 23:22 (PV-Tech)

In January, SunRun published a report explaining how local governments inadvertently drive up the cost of installing solar projects on a home. Between local solar permitting and inspection processes, a home installation was costing, on average, an additional US$2,500. Six months after its initial report, SunRun has revealed a new study published by Aecom, which confirms how a simpler solar permitting process can potentially generate more than US$5 billion in new growth for the state of California. Read more

Nautilus Solar closes financing on 9MW of PV projects in northeast US, California

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 21:51 (PV-Tech)

A subsidiary of US Bancorp and a partner of KeyCorp have helped Nautilus Solar Energy close its recent financing round for a 9MW portfolio of solar projects in California and the northeast US. The financial institutions offered Nautilus long-term tax equity and debt financing, which will go towards the development of a string of distributed generation projects under 15 to 20-year PPA?s. Read more

PV producer QSolar adds a second production line in its new manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 20:41 (Solarserver)

QSolar Limited (Calgary; Alberta) on July 22nd, 2011 announced that it has added a second production line in its solar photovoltaic (PV) panel manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China. The addition of the second line doubles the production capacity from the 20MW/year (approx. USD 30M/year) to 40MW/year (about USD 60M/year). Read more

PG&E selects 50 MW of PV projects under competitive solicitation

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 20:41 (Solarserver)

On July 20th, 2011, Pacific Gas and Electric Company Inc. (PG&E, San Francisco, California, U.S.) announced that it has selected Recurrent Energy LLC (San Francisco, California, U.S.), Westlands Solar Farms (Fresno, California, U.S.) and Fotowatio Renewable Ventures SL (FRV, Madrid, Spain) as the winners of its 2011 solar PV program solicitation. The three companies will install a total of 50 MW of new PV plants to serve PG&E customers in Northern California. Read more

DEGERenergie opens up Croatian solar market; Solar investor Solektra counts on MLD tracking

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 20:40 (Solarserver)

DEGERenergie (Horb am Neckar, Germany) has delivered its first MLD tracking systems to Croatia. Client and operator is Croatian solar company Solektra d.o.o., DEGERenergie reports in a press release. With more than 45,000 systems installed worldwide, DEGERenergie on own account is the global market leader for solar tracking systems. Read more

JinkoSolar chosen as module supplier for Photon Power?s new PV portfolio

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 17:42 (PV-Tech)

Photon Power has chosen JinkoSolar as the primary module supplier for the first phase of its new PV portfolio. Jinko has agreed to supply up to 2.84MW of crystalline modules, and the first batch of 515kW has already been shipped. Read more

SolarWorld presents electric aircraft "Elektra One" in U.S. debut at huge aviation show in Oshkosh

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 17:29 (Solarserver)

SolarWorld (Bonn, Germany, and Hillsboro, Ore.) the largest U.S. manufacturer of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels for more than 35 years, will showcase the maiden U.S. appearance of a zero-emissions electric aircraft at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2011 in Oshkosh, Wis., starting Monday, July 25th, 2011. SolarWorld and Germany?s PC Aero are working together to pioneer the world?s first comparatively affordable electric aircraft system complete with solar-equipped aircraft and solar-charging hangar. Read more

Principal Solar, Inc. announces world?s first solar energy library

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 17:28 (Solarserver)

Principal Solar, Inc. (Dallas), a publicly traded renewable energy holding company which concentrates its resources on rapidly advancing the inevitable, worldwide utilization of solar power through a unique roll-up strategy, launched the "Definitive Solar Library", due to the company the world?s first online reference center dedicated exclusively to solar energy. Read more

QSolar doubles manufacturing capacity at Shanghai module factory

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 17:22 (PV-Tech)

QSolar has added a second production line to its manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China. The addition of a second line has doubled production capacity at the site from 20MW to 40MW a year. Read more

Industrial manufacturer acquires Despatch Industries for undisclosed sum

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 17:02 (PV-Tech)

Thermal processing equipment specialist, Despatch Industries has been acquired by Illinois Tool Works Inc., for an undisclosed amount. ITW does not have any direct previous involvement in the PV industry. Despatch Industries had posted record revenue in 2010 of US$200 million and is expected to produce revenue above US$200 million this year. ITW?s revenues exceeded US$15 billion in 2010. Read more

NLP Solar Sales Training Webinar August 3rd & 4th

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 16:46 (Renewable Energy World)

Read more

TecnoSun Solar USA appoints new directors

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 15:51 (PV-Tech)

Blaine Stout and Klaus Pless have become the latest additions to TecnoSun Solar USA?s team of directors. Stout has been appointed director of operations, while Pless is taking on the role of director of technical marketing and sales of the company?s tracking systems. Read more

CFO shuffle at Canadian Solar

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 14:32 (PV-Tech)

Having only been in the position for 9-months, Andrew Chen, currently Canadian Solar?s, CFO is leaving the company ?to pursue a new challenge.? Chen will continue as special advisor to the CEO?s office until September 30, 2011, according to the company. His replacement will be Michael G. Potter, currently an independent director at Canadian Solar. He has been appointed as senior vice president and chief financial officer, effective July 20, 2011. Read more

LDK Solar joins Intertek?s ?Satellite? service to speed module certification

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 13:08 (PV-Tech)

With lead times on module certification continuing to be an issue for PV module manufacturers, LDK Solar?s Module Test Lab, based in Nanchang City, China, has become an officially recognized by Intertek as a qualified and authorized ?Satellite? laboratory in an attempt to reduce certification times and costs. Read more

LDK Solar joins Intertek?s ?SATELLITE? service to speed module certification

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 13:08 (PV-Tech)

With lead-times on module certification continuing to be an issue for PV module manufacturers, LDK Solar?s Module Test Lab, based in Nanchang City, China has becomes officially recognized by Intertek as a qualified and authorized ?SATELLITE? laboratory in an attempt to reduce certification times and costs. Read more

Canadian Solar raises 2Q shipment guidance

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 12:51 (PV-Tech)

Bucking the trend for downward revised shipment guidance for the second quarter, Canadian Solar said that it expects module shipments of approximately 295MW, higher than previous guidance of between 245MW-255MW. The company said that increased demand had led to the revision but would also mean gross margin guidance would be at the lower end of its prior guidance range of 13%-15%. Greater reliance on outside purchased solar cells to meet orders was said to be the reason for the lower expected margins. Read more

Applied Nanotech licenses solar ink technology to Sichuan Anxian Yinhe

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 12:26 (Solarserver)

On July 19th, 2011, Applied Nanotech Holdings Inc. (Austin, Texas, U.S.) announced that it has licensed its solar ink and paste technology to Sichuan Anxian Yinhe Construction and Chemical Group (YHCC, Anxian County, China). Under the terms of the licensing agreement, YHCC will pay Applied Nanotech USD 2 million as well as royalties of 3% on sales of the inks and pastes. YHCC will also gain exclusive license for the solar ink and paste technology in Asia, except for Korea and Japan. Read more

First Solar sells 9.9MW Spanish solar plant

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 11:12 (PV-Tech)

First Solar has sold its 9.9MW solar plant in Pereruela, Spain to the European Solar Power Fund ? a renewable energy fund managed by KGAL. Read more

Financing Offshore Wind Farms in the U.S.

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

As most readers are aware, the first major U.S. offshore wind farm to begin development was the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts. The project has been in the development phase for over a decade. The major barriers to development have been public opposition as well as the lack of an established regulatory framework with which to manage offshore energy development in the U.S. Read more

Putting Damaged Land To Good Use Part II: Coal To Solar Transition

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

I had such a great response to my recent commentary that I thought it would be worth the time to take an in depth look at the implications of such a massive undertaking. Now that we know it's physically possible for solar photovoltaics (PV) to supply all of the electricity needs in Kentucky by covering only 1/5th of the land already cleared by mountaintop removal (MTR) with solar panels, I think it's important to ask a few questions. Read more

Germany Passes More Aggressive Renewable Energy Law

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 15:29 (Renewable Energy World)

Despite widespread rumors in North America that Germany was abandoning its system of Advanced Renewable Tariffs, the country's upper chamber of parliament, the Bundesrat, approved the latest revision of its pioneering Renewable Energy Sources Act on July 8. Read more

Businesses Unite in Support of RGGI

Monday, 7.25.2011 - 15:03 (Renewable Energy World)

A group of Northeast-based companies are uniting to voice support to continue the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Read more