November feed-in tariff rates revealed for the UK

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 17:15 (PV-Tech)

The UK?s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has released the official quarterly statistics for solar installations in 2012. Under the newly-introduced capacity trigger mechanism, the level of installations recorded in May, June and July inform the feed-in tariff (FiT) rates for November 1. Read more

KACO new energy announces UK presence

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 15:28 (Solarpowerportal)

German inverter manufacturer, KACO new energy, has moved into its brand new UK-based service and customer support centre in Milton Keynes. The newly-formed UK team will be fronted by David Hawkins and hopes to offer UK-based clients and trade partners a much improved service. Read more

IEC, ICIM certify Upsolar modules with Solrif BIPV frames

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 12:13 (Solarserver)

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC, Geneva, Switzerland) and ICIM (Sesto San Giovanni, Italy) have certified Upsolar Group Company Ltd.'s (Shanghai, China) 60-cell solar photovoltaic (PV) modules featuring Schweizer Solrif frames. The Solrif, or Solar Roof Integration Frame, is a building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) product that allows PV modules to fasten together and sit flush with roof profiles. Read more

Suntech Founder Dr. Zhengrong Shi issues statement on stepping down from CEO role

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 12:07 (Solarserver)

Suntech Power Holdings Company Ltd. (Wuxi, China) Executive Chairman, Chief Strategy Officer and former CEO Dr. Zhengrong Shi has issued a statement on the Suntech blog addressing his stepping down from the role of CEO, stating that he had planned the transition for some time. The statement makes no mention of the recent fiasco with Global Solar Fund Sicar SCA (Luxembourg), whose assets it has frozen while a potential USD 685 million fraud related to non-existent government bonds is investigated. Dr. Shi stepped down as CEO two weeks after Suntech announced the investigation. Read more

November FiT rates revealed

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 11:03 (Solarpowerportal)

Ofgem has released its official installation figures for May, June and July which determine what the feed-in tariff rates will be starting from November 1. Read more

TrendForce: BOS sales affected by decline in PV prices

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 8:33 (Solarserver)

TrendForce (Taipei City, Taiwan) has released an analysis stating that the decline in prices in the solar photovoltaic (PV) sector has caused companies to seek a reduction in balance of system (BOS) prices, with these prices fluctuating and manufacturers providing more room for price negotiations in order to gain market share. The company describes its outlook for September 2012 as "bleak", stating that an expected rebound may not occur. TrendForce notes that PV manufacturers are becoming less flexible in terms of prices, which cannot fall further without producers selling at a loss. Read more

Siliken workers protest layoffs in Spain

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 8:26 (Solarserver)

Workers at Siliken SA's (Paterna, Spain) solar photovoltaic (PV) production plant in Rafelbunyol, Spain, held a demonstration on August 23rd, 2012, protesting layoffs and reduction of wages. Trade union CCOO states that the demonstration was the first of several planned, which center around the layoff of 100 workers at the Rafelbunyol plant. Read more

Third-party-owned solar generated over US$1B in growth for CA since 2007 according to Sunrun report

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 21:57 (PV-Tech)

Sunrun and PV Solar Report released a new study, which found that third-party-owned solar has delivered over US$1 billion to the California economy since 2007. The value was said to be determined by totalling the contract value for each third-party-owned solar installation in the state. Sunrun is lauded with starting the solar power service model for home solar in 2007 and is the said to be the market leader with over US$1.5 million in solar equipment installed every day. Read more

Panama begins construction on first solar PV installation

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 21:15 (PV-Tech)

Panama?s President Ricardo Martinelli stated on Wednesday that Panama?s first solar PV installation will hopefully lead to a reduction in the cost of energy across the nation, by means of renewable technologies. The project, located in the province of Herrera in the Sarigua National Park, is being developed through a US$9 million contribution from Italy?s Enel Green Power. Operation of the plant is expected to occur by the second half of 2013. Read more

Clean Power Finance approves Chint/Astronergy module portfolio for its MySolar financing product

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 21:05 (PV-Tech)

Clean Power Finance recently approved Chint/Astronergy?s module portfolio for use in its MySolar residential solar financing product. The company?s modules were approved based off of its strength, financial capability, supply chain availability and services and product quality. Read more

Gehrlicher Solar begins construction of Rothenburg IV solar park

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 20:57 (PV-Tech)

Gehrlicher Solar has broken ground on its Rothenburg IV, 15.2MW solar park. The project will join existing solar parks, Rothenburg I-III, which hold a combined 21.8MWp and are spread across a total of 30 hectares of a defunct military airport. The project is expected to be commissioned on September 30. Read more

REC supplies modules for rooftop PV system in Denmark

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 19:59 (PV-Tech)

Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) was pleased to provide its modules for what is being hailed as the largest solar rooftop system in Northern Europe. The PV installation, located on the headquarters of Danish insurance company Topdanmark, was constructed by DrivhusEffekten and connected to the grid on August 17. Read more

SolarWorld connects 33MW of PV plant to German grid in Q2

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 19:15 (PV-Tech)

SolarWorld noted that its large-scale system business expansion has been successful thus far with the company pointing to 33MW of total power being connected to the grid in Germany during Q2 2012. The company connected five solar farms in commercial and industrial areas in the Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Lower Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The farms will supply over 30 million kWh of power per year. Read more

Schanti Partners invests in 50MW Indian PV project

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 17:15 (PV-Tech)

Schanti Partners, a US-based asset management company, has put aside INR5.8 billion (US$105.1 million) for the development of a 50MW solar power project in the district of Kaimur, Bihar, India, Energy Business Review has revealed. Read more

Redland acquires Schott Solar?s InDaX technology

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 16:53 (Solarpowerportal)

Roofing specialist, Redland, part of the Monier Group, has announced the acquisition of Schott Solar?s InDaX technology for the manufacture of roof-integrated PV following Schott Solar?s announcement in July this year that it will be ceasing production of crystalline photovoltaics. Read more

First Solar to develop Indian solar farms to counter grid blackouts

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 16:48 (PV-Tech)

On the back of a two-day blackout in India which caused tragedy, chaos and loss of face at the end of July, Bloomberg has revealed that US solar giant First Solar is drawing out plans to develop solar farms in India as repeated power outages spur on demand for solar power. Read more

SPG Solar hires Doug May as CEO

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 14:15 (PV-Tech)

SPG Solar, a provider of commercial solar power products and services headquartered in California, US, has named Doug May as its new CEO. Read more

First Solar waves goodbye to project construction head James Lamon

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 13:15 (PV-Tech)

Bloomberg has revealed that First Solar?s senior vice president for its project engineering, construction and maintenance division, James Lamon has left the company. First Solar, a specialist in utility-scale PV projects, is now seeking a replacement to head its project construction division. Read more

Romney's Energy Plan Ignores the Success of Solar and Wind: View

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 13:12 (Renewable Energy World)

Mitt Romney sets an ambitious goal with his pledge to achieve U.S. energy independence by 2020. It's just too bad his plan relies almost entirely on fossil fuels and largely ignores the solid promise of clean energy. Read more

Canadian Solar partners with SunGift Trade

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 12:32 (Solarpowerportal)

South West renewable distributor Sun Gift Trade has announced that it has become an official partner of and authorised reseller for solar manufacturer Canadian Solar, joining a handful of selected authorised UK resellers. Read more

Heliatek trials solar film technology production

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 12:15 (PV-Tech)

Heliatek has started a pilot production programme for its new solar film technology. Production is being carried out at its facility in Dresden, Germany, which was inaugurated in March 2011. Heliatek is a specialist in the manufacture of energy harvesting components made from flexible solar films based on organic semiconductor materials. Read more

Romney white paper on energy policy vague on renewable energy

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 19:23 (Solarserver)

The campaign of U.S. Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney (R) has released a white paper regarding the candidate's energy policy plans, calling for North American energy independence by 2020 and focusing on oil and gas development. The document also includes vague calls for an end to alleged preferential treatment of renewable energy, and suggests removing subsidies, calling for a "level playing field". This is a departure from the direct attacks on renewable energy which have been a feature of the Romney campaign to date. Read more

November FiT rates receive lukewarm reception

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 17:01 (Solarpowerportal)

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has released the official quarterly statistics for solar installations. Under the newly-introduced capacity trigger mechanism, the level of installations recorded in May, June, July inform the FiT rates for November 1. Read more

enXco renamed EDF Renewable Energy

Friday, 8.24.2012 - 11:15 (PV-Tech)

enXco, a specialist in renewable energy and a company owned by EDF Energies Nouvelles, has been rebranded as EDF Renewable Energy as part of its intregration into the EDF Group. Read more