Survey Reveals Customers' Wish List for PV Inverter Improvements

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 19:20 (Renewable Energy World)

System-level monitoring, continued adoption of string inverters for large PV installs, and improvements by Chinese suppliers are among the trends gleaned from a survey of inverter buyers & sellers. Read more

Mortenson Construction to build 2.4 MW PV plant in North Carolina

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 15:21 (Solarserver)

On January 19th, 2012, Mortenson Construction (Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.) announced that it has been selected as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor by MP2 Capital (San Francisco, California, US) to construct a 2.4-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) array in Scotland County, N.C. Read more

Solamon plans 60 MW PV project in Jamaica

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 14:51 (Solarserver)

On January 25th, 2012 Solamon Energy Corporation (Toronto, Canada) announced plans to develop a 60 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project in Jamaica. The USD 450 million project will include the development of a manufacturing plant and workforce training to build local skills for the construction of future PV plants in the region. On the same day, the company also announced that it has appointed Mazen Braish as Senior Vice President. Braish has been tasked with developing relationships with officials in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates with goal of developing PV business in these nations. Read more

Building integrated PV: Soltecture partners with altPower

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 14:44 (Solarserver)

On January 24th, 2012, Soltecture GmbH (Berlin, Germany) announced that it has formed a partnership with altPOWER (New York, U.S.) to develop BIPV projects in the United States. altPOWER?s BIPV projects in New York City include The Helena and Battery Park City's Solaire, TriBeCa Green, Visionare, Riverhouse, PS276 and many others. altPOWER has earned a reputation as the leading building integrated photovoltaics provider. Read more

Incentives freeze for large scale PV plants in Italy leads to increasing importance of rooftop segments and thus regional installers

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 12:14 (Solarserver)

The Italian energy agency GSE (Gestore dei Servizi Energetici) announced that large scale solar photovoltaic (PV) plants will not get any incentives in the second half of 2012 as the incentive volume was exceeded in 2011. This will lead to a shift in the development of market segments and result in the increasing importance of regional installers, EuPD Research (Bonn, Germany) reports in a press release. Read more

EPIA: Global PV market reaches 27.7 GW in 2011

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 11:13 (Solarserver)

On January 24th, 2012 the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA, Brussels, Belgium) announced the release of a new report which finds that 27.7 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity was commissioned globally in 2011, with 75% of the new global capacity in European nations. This global market figures represent a mid-range of the estimates offered by market researchers. Among other observations, EPIA's "Market Report 2011" notes that the number of national markets larger than 1 GW rose from three in 2010 to six in 2011. Read more

Toby Corey joins SolarCity as chief revenue officer

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 23:34 (PV-Tech)

SolarCity has appointed Toby Corey, co-founder and former president and COO of USWeb, as its new chief revenue officer. In his role at SolarCity, Corey will aim to change the ways in which consumers, businesses and government organizations convert to cleaner energy, at a lower cost, through the means of various integrated solutions. Read more

Lux Research report notes shift from panels to installations leads downstream companies to success

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 23:27 (PV-Tech)

In its new report, ?Swimming Downstream: Evaluating Up-and-Coming Solar Installers and Developers,? Lux Research has noted that the shift in focus and investment from panels to installations has allowed for companies such as SolarCity, SunRun, Recurrent Energy, SunEdison and Solar Power Partners, to help the rejuvenate the downstream model. Read more

EDF EN Canada?s second 11.8MW St. Isidore project enters commercial operation

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 22:52 (PV-Tech)

EDF EN Canada, a division of EDF Energies Nouvelles, advised that its second 11.8MW St. Isidore solar project in Ontario had entered commercial operation. The project, St. Isidore B, consists of two solar PV arrays located within 4 miles of each other and began delivering electricity to the Hydro One distribution grid in late December 2011. Read more

Psst! Solar Fred Marketing Tip: Film Your Solar Projects in Time Lapse

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 21:39 (Renewable Energy World)

I have no idea why people love time-lapse videos. Our eyes are certainly attracted to things that move quickly, and for some reason it’s fun to see people in hardhats and machines building a solar project from nothing, condensing days or weeks into minutes. Below are two recent time-lapse solar videos that I saw on Twitter. Both are large Read more

NLP Solar Sales Training Live Webinar February 8th & 9th

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 19:03 (Renewable Energy World)

Read more

Solarcentury quits BPVA amid legal fray

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 18:02 (Solarpowerportal)

Solarcentury has confirmed its resignation from the British Photovoltaics Association (BPVA) after the association's Chairman applied to intervene in the legal case the day before the Court of Appeal hearing. The Court refused the application. Read more

Gehrlicher Solar America makes plans for 5MW of projects in Massachusetts

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 17:48 (PV-Tech)

Gehrlicher Solar America has successfully expanded its reach into Massachusetts with the completion of two commercial solar installations, one of which is a 151kW ground-mounted system in North Dartmouth. The company has also suggested that it has plans to construct over 5MW of projects in the state over the course of 2012. Read more

National Solar Power to construct 100MW solar energy project with Liberty County, Florida

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 17:48 (PV-Tech)

National Solar Power and Liberty County, Florida, have entered into a 100MW solar energy project agreement. The project, representing a US$350 million investment at full build out, is National Solar Power?s third in Florida with the others being in Gadsden and Hardee counties. Read more

SolarEdge introduces new single-phase inverters for the North American PV market

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 15:26 (Solarserver)

On January 25th, 2012 SolarEdge Technologies Ltd. (Hod Hasharon, Israel) announced the introduction of a new line of single-phase inverters with up to 98% weighted efficiency for the North American solar photovoltaic (PV) market. SolarEdge states that this efficiency makes it an industry leader. The company is now offering 3 kW, 3.8 kW, 5 kW, 6 kW and 7 kW single-phase inverters with grid support for 208, 240 and 277 VAC. Read more

KB Home unveils solar power as standard in Florida homes

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 15:17 (Solarserver)

On January 23rd, 2012, KB Home (Los Angeles, California, U.S.) announced that it will include solar power systems as a standard feature of its Built to Order homes in select communities in Central Florida. The solar systems will help KB homeowners to reduce their monthly energy bills by as much as 50%, compared to a typical resale home, KB Home emphasizes. Read more

Think Ink for Increased Efficiency

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 15:05 (Renewable Energy World)

One dollar per watt: that's the mark the solar industry is hoping to hit in order to become cost-competitive with conventional energies. In a bid to reach this magic number in the next two years, various Asian manufacturers are striving to reduce costs by increasing volume production. An alternative direction that will benefit the industry in the long term is to target increased efficiencies primarily through new manufacturing processes, new higher-quality materials for metallization and changing the structure of the cell. Nanotechnology companies have developed these new materials and processes that enable manufacturers to both increase quality and lower-cost production, Read more

Much Light, Little Heat Efficiency

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

Energy efficiency in the U.S. is much light and little heat — literally.  Government policy pays a great deal of attention to saving electricity, but focuses little on the thermal energy we waste. “Policy is electricity-centric in the U.S. Unless you are making kilowatts, the most efficient investments are off the radar,” sa Read more

Phoenix Solar AG realizes rooftop PV power plant in Slovenia

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 14:58 (Solarserver)

Phoenix Solar AG (Sulzemoos, Germany), a leading international photovoltaic system integrator listed in Prime Standard of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, has realized a rooftop power plant with a peak output of 800 kilowatt hours in Naklo, Slovenia. The solar power plant was built by Phoenix Solar in cooperation with Gorenjske elektrarne and completed and connected to the grid of the local electricity supplier in December 2011. It is currently one of the ten largest solar power plants in Slovenia. Read more

Italian FiT restrictions crushes hopes of PV manufacturers, says GIFI

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 14:41 (PV-Tech)

Following the amendment to the Quarto Conto Energia, GIFI, the Italian PV Industry Association has said manufacturers are rising up to urge the government to repeal its decision on cutting FiTs for solar plants on agricultural land. Panic has spread through the PV manufacturing industry, where already financed projects will now not provide as much of a return as under the original legislation. Read more

Italian FiT restrictions crush hopes of PV manufacturers, says GIFI

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 14:41 (PV-Tech)

Following the amendment to the Quarto Conto Energia, GIFI, the Italian PV Industry Association, has said manufacturers are rising up to urge the government to repeal its decision on cutting FiTs for solar plants on agricultural land. Panic has spread through the PV manufacturing industry, where already financed projects will now not provide as much of a return as under the original legislation. Read more

Opportunities and Challenges in the 2012 New England Solar Market

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 14:36 (Renewable Energy World)

The New England solar market is extremely strong. But even with these strong existing players, there is still room for more competition and new players enter every day. With that said, there are number of opportunities and risks that have the ability to impact industry growth and profits. In December and January, I spent a lot of time talking with Read more

Am I selling at 43p or 21p?

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 13:39 (Solarpowerportal)

After Government this week announced its intention to take the ongoing appeal case to the Supreme Court; the UK solar industry has been left with a huge question mark hanging over what on the feed-in tariff rates will be between December 12, 2011 and March 3, 2012. The point is: what rate should installers be selling at? Read more

Belgium almost doubles PV solar generation in 2011

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 13:37 (PV-Tech)

Belgian sustainable energy statistics magazine Renouvelle has announced that with 1600MW installed in Belgium, PV accounts for 9% of consumption. Flanders alone covers 88% of installations by the end of 2011 with 12% in Wallonia. Read more

US DOE?s Solar Decathlon 2013 reveals location and competitors

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 12:55 (PV-Tech)

Orange County, California?s Great Park will play host to the US Department of Energy?s (US DOE) 2013 Solar Decathlon. The Orange County Great Park is a 1,347-acre site on the publicly-owned portion of the 4,700-acre former Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, and was selected from a pool of entrants primarily for its emphasis on sustainability and its easy access for visitors. Read more

SolarBridge and Solartec partner to bring AC modules to emerging Mexican solar market

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 12:50 (PV-Tech)

Solartec Energia Renovable AC modules, coupled with SolarBridge Technologies? microinverters are to be introduced to the Mexican market, it has been announced. Read more

National Solar Power to build 100 MW PV project in Liberty County, Florida

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 12:04 (Solarserver)

On January 26th, 2012 National Solar Power (NSP, Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S.) announced that it has entered into a development agreement with Liberty County in the U.S. state of Florida to build a 100 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project in the county. The Liberty County project will be comprised of up to five 20 MW PV plants, each occupying 80 hectares, and will be adjacent to the company's Gadsden County, Florida PV project. As part of the effort to fund these PV projects, NSP recently announced the creation of Green Infrastructure Partners LLC. Read more

Concentrating solar power in India: Siemens Energy to supply steam turbines for 300 MW of CSP in Rajasthan

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 9:11 (Solarserver)

On January 25th, 2012 Siemens Energy (Erlangen, Germany) announced that it has been awarded contracts by three different customers to supply a total of 300 MW of steam turbines for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in the Indian state of Rajasthan. The company will supply its SST-700 steam turbines for the Godawari, Abhijeet and Diwakar & KVK CSP plants, all of which use parabolic trough CSP technology. All three plants will participate in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). Read more

Daqo New Energy welcomes Bing Sun as its new CFO

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 22:40 (PV-Tech)

Starting February 1, Bing Sun will officially begin his appointment as Daqo New Energy?s new chief financial officer. Sun joins the company after working as CFO for Shunda Holdings since June 2008. Previous work saw Sun as a financial controller at BCD Semiconductor, an audit manager at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and compliance manager at BAX Global. Sun has an MBA with a concentration in accounting and is a US certified public accountant. Read more

India offers assistance to Mauritius on developing renewable energy

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 14:39 (Solarserver)

India is taking interest in providing help to Mauritius on developing the renewable energy sector. India has offered support to Mauritius in tapping its renewable energy resources including wind, solar and geothermal. During his recent visit to Mauritius, Indian Minister of New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah offered Mauritius government assistance to build renewable energy projects on the island. Read more

DECC reveals true cost of legal action

Friday, 1.27.2012 - 11:38 (Solarpowerportal)

During questions submitted to the Department of Climate and Energy Change (DECC), Greg Barker revealed the full cost to the taxpayer of DECC’s legal challenges. Read more