Pike Research: Inverter market entering a period of intense competition, innovation

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 15:45 (Solarserver)

On July 17th, 2012 Pike Research (Boulder, Colorado, U.S.) released a new report which states that the market for inverters to accompany renewable energy generation is undergoing an intense period of technological innovation and will more than double in size to over USD 19 billion in 2017. "Inverters for Renewable Energy Applications" analyzes the market for inverters to accompany solar photovoltaics (PV), small wind power, stationary fuel cells and vehicle-to-grid enabled vehicles to 2017. The report predicts that Europe will continue to be the top market for inverters, primarily for PV applications. Read more

OCI Leads Solar Cell Decline on China Probe Concern

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

OCI Co. led declines among South Korean solar-cell companies after media reports said the Chinese government began investigating sales of Korean-made polysilicon in China on suspicions of dumping. Read more

PG&E completes 20 MW PV plant incorporating custom data collection equipment

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 11:37 (Solarserver)

Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E, San Francisco, California, U.S.) has commissioned a 20 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Huron (California, U.S.) which includes custom telecommunications module by NxGen Modular LLC (San Jose, California, U.S.) to retrieve and store performance data. The module also integrates protection relays and controls. PG&E built the plant in eight months, from October 2011 to June 2012, as part of its five-year clean energy initiative. Read more

SkyPower sues OPA, Government of Ontario over FIT changes

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 11:33 (Solarserver)

On July 12th, 2012, SkyPower Ltd. (Toronto, Canada) filed a lawsuit against the Ontario Minister of Energy and the Ontario Power Authority (OPA, Toronto, Canada) to prevent new feed-in tariff (FiT) rules from applying to its pending applications. SkyPower has file 118 FiT applications, each through a separate limited partnership. The company claims that the OPA did not process these applications in a timely manner, and that under the new rules nearly all 118 projects will be ineligible to participate in the program. Read more

Chile gives environmental approval for 220 MW PV plant

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 9:29 (Solarserver)

Chile's Department of Environmental Assessment (SEA) has given approval to AES Gener SA's (Santiago, Chile) 220 MW Los Andes solar photovoltaic (PV) project in the nation's Antofagasta region. AES Gener plans to develop the USD 572 million project in six phases, starting with an initial 20 MW phase, followed by five 40 MW phases. The company plans to begin work on the project in early 2013, and bring the first 20 MW online in 2014. Read more

U.S. Republican Party considers legislation to dismantle DOE loan guarantee program

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 8:58 (Solarserver)

Members of the Republican Party in the U.S. House of Representatives have held a hearing on draft legislation to dismantle the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) loan guarantee program. The "No more Solyndras Act" would prohibit the DOE from issuing any loan guarantees for applications submitted after December 31st, 2011. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA, Washington D.C., U.S.) opposes the legislation. Read more

Agua Caliente PV plant in Yuma County, Arizona reaches 200 MW capacity milestone

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 7:56 (Solarserver)

On July 16th, 2012 NRG Energy Inc. (Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.), MidAmerican Solar (Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.) and First Solar Inc. (Tempe, Arizona, U.S.) announced that they have commissioned 200 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity at their Agua Caliente plant. The companies describe Agua Caliente as the largest operational PV plant in the world, and the plant will have a capacity of 290 MW-AC when completed. Agua Caliente is located in Yuma County in the U.S. state of Arizona and comprised of First Solar thin-film cadmium telluride PV modules. Read more

FLEXcon partners with Unconquered Sun Solar Technologies to deliver solar golf cart conversion kits

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 22:15 (PV-Tech)

FLEXcon and Unconquered Sun Solar Technologies are partnering to bring a more eco-friendly solution to the sport of golf. FLEXcon provided its FLEXcon multiGUARD KPE W12 backsheet and its FLEXmount DFPEF 32 Black V-778 200 POLY C2S tape solution for the manufacturing and installation of solar panels onto golf carts as part of Unconquered Sun Solar?s solar golf car conversion kits. Read more

Mecasolar to supply solar trackers for 56 PV projects in Greece

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 22:14 (PV-Tech)

Mecasolar noted that it had received orders to provide its solar trackers for 56 PV projects in Greece, representing a 52% increase in six months. In June the company reached an agreement to deliver 351 solar trackers to Greece, 229 of them being dual-axis and 122 being single-axis. Read more

Entecco submits proposal for 2,000MW solar project in Seneca County, New York

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 22:02 (PV-Tech)

Responding to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo?s Energy Highway Initiative, Renewables Biz has reported that Entecco has submitted a project proposal for a PV or CPV project with a size up to 2,000MW that will be built in Seneca County, New York. Entecco?s Central Solar City (CSC) project would potentially be the largest single solar hub of its kind in the US. Read more

Lend Lease, SolarCity announce new projects at California and Colorado Air Force communities

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 21:15 (PV-Tech)

Lend Lease and SolarCity?s SolarStrong initiative, which plans to provide solar electricity for up to 120,000 US military homes, has announced its newest projects. The program will develop solar systems at Lend Lease-managed Air Force communities at the Tierra Vista at Los Angeles Air Force Base and Colorado?s Peterson and Schriever Air Force Base communities. Read more

Jordan to receive US$70 million from World Bank to help finance 100MW solar plant

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 21:04 (PV-Tech)

Bloomberg has advised that according to a report from Petra, the World Bank has agreed to give US$70 million to Jordan in order to help the country finance its US$600 million, 100MW solar plant. Jordan is currently looking for other resources to help finance the rest of the project according to Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Alaa Batayneh. Read more

TiSun installs largest solar collector façade in Czech Republic

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 19:54 (PV-Tech)

TiSun has installed the largest solar collector BIPV system in the Czech Republic, the company has announced. The 22 collector strong installation is located at a nursing home in Ostrava-Marianske on a 176m² surface and has been installed by Apex Euro. The system is connected to a 10,000litre water tank that is heated with the generated energy. TiSun did not specify the energy output generated by the system. Read more

AETI inverter selected by SEMV for solar project in Mexico

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 19:15 (PV-Tech)

AETI?s (American Electric Technologies) ISIS 1MW solar inverter has been witness-tested to UL1741 by TÜV of North America. The integration of 1MW of liquid cooled power inverters with a 1MVA transformer and medium voltage switchgear, is aimed at reducing field installation costs. SEMV (Socios Energeticos de Mexico Verde) has selected AETI to a solar project in Mexico. Contract terms were not disclosed. Read more

Order Focus: Senersun provides SolarNRG with 55MW of modules

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 17:50 (PV-Tech)

Senersun has entered an agreement with Dutch SolarNRG, the company has announced. Under the agreement, PV panel manufacturer Senersun will supply SolarNRG with 55MW of PV panels. Senersun?s official distributer SolarNGR will distribute the panel in the Benelux region as well as the Dutch ABC Islands. Read more

LDK Solar Gets Portion of Debts Paid by China's Xinyu Government

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 17:36 (Renewable Energy World)

LDK Solar Co., the solar-wafer maker that's reported four straight quarterly losses, will have a portion of its debts paid by the government of the eastern Chinese city of Xinyu, where it's based. Read more

Solar Impulse departs for Toulouse

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 15:37 (Solarserver)

The Solar Impulse HB-SIA solar-powered plane departed at 3:36 AM GMT on July 17th, 2012 from Madrid-Barajas airport, Spain, with plans to land at Toulouse-Francazal airport, France, at 6:00 PM GMT. Solar Impulse has also launched a photo contest for viewers located on the HB-SIA route. Two winners will be chosen by Founders and Pilots Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg, and contestants will be required to upload their photos to the Solar Impulse website. Read more

The Alternative Crowd: Unusual Renewable Energies

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 15:13 (Renewable Energy World)

Considering their popularity, "alternative energy" is almost a misnomer for increasingly mainstream energy sources like wind, solar and biofuels. Some alternative energies still fit the title, however. These renewables, which will principally provide power for small devices, use unusual sources to create their juice, including vibrations, clothing, viruses, water ? even the movements of the human body. Read more

Grid-tied and Off-grid Solar 101

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

Will I need batteries for my solar system?  How much does it cost to go completely off the grid?  These questions often come up as people start thinking about going solar.  So, what does it really mean to go "off-grid" with a PV system?  First, let's take a look at a traditional grid-tied system. Grid-tied Solar When most people install a solar ele Read more

System No. 22 installed for IKEA in Pittsburgh

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 13:53 (PV-Tech)

IKEA has connected PV system number 22 to the grid in an area of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the company has announced. The 694kW array is equipped with 2,884 PV panels on an 86,800ft² site at the IKEA store in Robinson Township. This PV plant leaves the Swedish retailer with 17 more projects to connect to the grid to achieve the goal of installing 38MW of energy at IKEA stores throughout the United States. The Pittsburgh store had a 31kW PPA PV system installed in 2000, under a five-year PPA, but it had been removed in order for the new system to be built by REC Solar, owned and operated by IKEA. Read more

Conergy takes over First Solar trainees in Frankfurt

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 13:02 (PV-Tech)

Conergy has taken over some of First Solar?s trainees at its Frankfurt site, the company has announced. After First Solar closed its manufacture in Frankfurt, Conergy has decided to take on some of the company?s apprentices who are training to become electronics engineers. Frankfurt?s Mayor Martin Wilke and Claus Sven Starke, manager at Conergy SolarModule, brought the decision on its way in a personal conversation. Read more

Explosive solar growth doubles renewable deployment in the South West of England

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 12:17 (Solarpowerportal)

A new report published today shows that renewable capacity in the South West has more than doubled over the last year. The ?Renewable Energy Progress Report? published by Regen SW, shows that renewable electricity capacity increased by 142 percent in the region, from 217MW in 2010/11 to 525MW in 2011/12. Read more

PV equipment manufacturing: NPD Solarbuzz says PV makers will adopt joint technology roadmap

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 9:04 (Solarserver)

NPD Solarbuzz (San Francisco, California, U.S.) has predicted that a collective technology roadmap for the global solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing industry will emerge during 2013, and will serve as a leading indicator for new technology buying cycles. The company's latest "PV Equipment Quarterly" further predicts that through implementation of the new technology roadmap, 75% of tier 1 crystalline silicon (c-Si) capacity will be dedicated to producing PV cells with greater than 18% efficiencies by 2015. Finally, the company predicts that the current industry trend towards consolidation will result in less than 100 c-Si PV cell and thin-film manufacturers by 2016. Read more

This is What 37,000 Layoffs in the Wind Industry Looks Like

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 16:16 (Renewable Energy World)

Here's a chart that voters in the Midwest probably aren't going to like: Read more

NREL?s web app provides cost and performance estimates for electric generation

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 21:15 (PV-Tech)

The US Department of Energy?s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently developed, under a grant from the DOE?s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, a new web application, the Transparent Cost Database (TCDB), which collects cost and performance estimates for electric generation, advanced vehicles and renewable fuel technologies. Read more

Sustainable Energy Technologies continues shipping to Ontario

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 19:15 (PV-Tech)

ProFab Solar, a joint venture company between Sustainable Energy Technologies and Steel Tree Structures, is building on its recent success in Ontario. Last month, ProFab Solar system was shipped, installed and commissioned for UK-based Unconquered Sun; ten additional systems are now in production and booked for July. Read more

ROC delay: ?Treasury are actively seeking to undermine the renewables industry?

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 17:56 (Solarpowerportal)

Industry has reacted with universal condemnation to news that Government has delayed making a decision on RO banding for renewable technologies thanks to a rift between Coalition MPs over the level of subsidy wind technology should receive. Read more

On-bill Repayment: Great Promise, but Challenges Remain

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

On-bill repayment has received a great deal of attention during the last few years as a potential approach to expanding the reach of energy efficiency financing in the residential and commercial sectors.  With on-bill repayment, utilities or third-party lenders cover the upfront cost of energy efficiency retrofits and customers pay back the loans t Read more

Coalition stand-off means ROC decision delayed until autumn

Tuesday, 7.17.2012 - 10:57 (Solarpowerportal)

The Telegraph is reporting this morning that a crucial announcement over the level of support different renewable technologies would receive under the Renewable Obligation (RO) scheme has been delayed due to an escalating rift amongst the Coalition Government. Read more