British Photovoltaic Association launches loyalty rewards program

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 19:54 (Solarserver)

The British Photovoltaic Association (BPVA) has launched a loyalty reward program for the renewable energy industry dubbed "The National Energy Card". Due to BPVA the National Energy Card will support sustainable growth in the renewable energy sector, by giving consumers three key benefits: reassuringly accurate, up-to-date information; access to high quality and reliable renewable energy products and services; and meaningful rewards linked to their purchases. Read more

President of Suntech Europe departing

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 18:04 (Solarpowerportal)

Suntech has confirmed that Jerry Stokes is leaving the company, reports PV-Tech. Vedat Gürgeli, current Vice President sales and marketing has also been officially announced as Managing Director Suntech in Europe, reporting to David King. Read more

Kyocera, NEDO begin smart grid demonstration project in New Mexico, United States

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 16:16 (Solarserver)

Kyocera Corporation (Kyoto, Japan), Japan's New Energy Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and partner organizations have begun operations at a smart grid demonstration project in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Kyocera supplied a 910 kW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant, which will join another 90 kW of PV to supply a microgrid in the town of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Additionally, the project includes a "smart house", involving a 3.4 kW residential PV system, 24 kWh of lithium-ion storage, a heat storage unit, and a Home Energy Management System. Read more

DECC: Renewables Obligation banding cuts would impact large-scale PV deployments in the U.K.

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 12:48 (Solarserver)

The U.K.'s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has released an Impact Assessment which finds that proposed reductions in Renewables Obligation (RO) banding levels will result in few solar photovoltaic (PV) plants being built under the policy. The DECC has proposed cutting PV from 2 ROCs to 1.5 ROCs in 2013/2014, to gradually fall to 0.9 ROCs in 2016/2017. Under its own assessment, the DECC finds that this will reduce new PV capacity built through the program to 0-20 megawatt (MW) in 2013/2014, 0-60 MW in 2014/2015 and 0-100 MW in 2015/2016. Read more

Waaree to build 5 MW thin-film PV plant in India

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 12:44 (Solarserver)

Taxus Infrastructure & Power Projects Pvt. Ltd. (New Delhi, India) has awarded a contract to build a 5 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) plant on a turnkey basis to Waaree Energies Pvt. Ltd. (Mumbai, India). The plant will comprise more than 52,000 thin-film PV modules. "We at Waaree are committed to the most efficient technology and manpower to execute the projects on time and deliver the best to our customers," said Waaree Group Chairman Hitesh Doshi. Read more

France proposes phasing out feed-in tariffs in favor of tenders for PV

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 9:32 (Solarserver)

France's Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy and its Ministry of Economic Recovery have produced a report recommending gradually phasing out the nation's feed-in tariff program in favor of a tender system, which it says is driven by cost concerns. The government has not said when it plans to act on the recommendations in "Wind and photovoltaics: Issues of energy, industry and society". The report features a particularly strong attack on feed-in tariffs as a system. Read more

Bechtel President of Renewables Discusses Ivanpah

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 21:52 (Renewable Energy World)

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, expected to be the largest solar thermal project in the world when it comes online next year, reached the halfway mark of construction in August. Last week at Solar Power International in Orlando, Fla., I sat down with Jim Ivany, president of Bechtel's Renewable Power business, to discuss the company's work on the project and the future of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) in the U.S. Read more

SolarBridge gets USD 7 million venture loan

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 19:58 (Solarserver)

On September 17th, 2012, Horizon Technology Finance Corp. (Farmington, Connecticut, U.S.) announced that it has closed a USD 7 million venture loan to SolarBridge Technologies Inc. (Austin, Texas, U.S.), a producer of module-integrated micro-inverters for the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry. The proceeds of the venture loan will be used to support SolarBridge's growth and expansion. Read more

Segen joins forces with Chinese ReneSolar

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 18:22 (Solarpowerportal)

Having partnered with Canadian Solar earlier this month, UK distributer Segen has announced that it will be adding China-based ReneSolar?s range of solar modules to its growing portfolio. Read more

Trina Solar announces UK roadshow tour

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 17:59 (Solarpowerportal)

Solar manufacturer, Trina Solar, has announced the launch of its live Roadshow which will tour the UK between October 2-10. Trina Solar?s very own event truck will be travelling up and down the country hoping to engage the local solar PV installer community by offering a unique live and interactive experience. Read more

Dubai seeks more PV in energy mix with confirmation of 1GW solar park

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 17:15 (PV-Tech)

Speaking at this week?s MENA Renewable Energy Forum, as cited by gulfnews.com, the managing director and CEO of Dubai Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA), Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, confirmed plans to invest US$3.27 billion in building one of the largest solar parks in the region ? a 1GW PV facility. A specific location has not been disclosed. Read more

Southern Africa Extends Solar Presence at SPI

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 16:27 (Renewable Energy World)

Eight solar power firm owners and operators from five Southern African countries attended the Solar Power International (SPI) conference in Orlando, Florida last week. Firm owners from Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia met with potential U.S. technology and investment partners, heard from industry experts on the state of the industry, and checked out the latest products on the market from the more than 1,200 exhibitors at the conference. Working with Maryland-based Elan International, the delegates' attendance at the conference was facilitated by the U.S. Embassy in Botswana and the U.S. Agency for International Development's Southern Africa Trade Hub. Read more

Displaced Tortoises for Solar in Mojave Roils Environmentalists

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 16:16 (Renewable Energy World)

It's a 106-degree Fahrenheit day in the Mojave Desert. Heat devils dance off chocolate-hued Clark Mountain on the horizon. Air-conditioned cars zip along Interstate 15 toward Las Vegas. And inside a chain-link pen covered to keep out predators are scores of rare, threatened, sand-colored desert tortoises. Their captivity helps show how complicated it is to combat climate change without collateral damage. The foot-long (30-centimeter) creatures are being removed from their burrows for a project to harvest solar energy in the California desert. Trucks groan down sunbaked roads, cranes pivot with 750-pound (340-kilogram) mirrors and mechanical post-pounders drive steel pylons Read more

Cost Cutting: Is QBotix the BOS Innovation Solar Needs?

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 15:30 (Renewable Energy World)

It's an ongoing debate: Some experts believe that the solar industry will progress with efficiency improvements, while other think completely new technology is the answer. Wasiq Bokhari is on team technology. He is the CEO and founder of QBotix ? a company touting a new tracking innovation that Bokhari believes can significantly increase margins and allow for easier installation and increased deployment. Read more

Solar Shakeout: end of the line for Flexcell and Photovoltech

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 15:15 (PV-Tech)

Winding-up procedures are being arranged for two previously announced distressed PV manufacturers, VHF Technologies, better known under its Flexcell product name and imec spin-off, Photovoltech. Both companies were reported to have failed to find buyers after shuttering manufacturing lines and entered insolvency proceedings. Read more

Queensland to introduce detrimental gross metering scheme

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 13:15 (PV-Tech)

The Queensland Competition Authority of Australia has been invited by the region?s governing body to offer its opinion on its drastic changes to the Queensland Solar Bonus Scheme and examine approaches to estimating a fair and reasonable feed-in tariff rate and appropriate means of implementation of it. From July 10, the feed in tariff was ruthlessly axed from AUD$0.44 to AUD$0.08 and now the government is proposing consumers purchase electricity generated by their PV systems from the grid at a retail price of between AUD$0.17 and AUD$0.35 per kWh. Read more

LS Power completes financing on Centinela Solar Energy Project, authorizes construction

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 9:22 (Solarserver)

LS Power (New York, New York, U.S.) has completed financing on and authorized construction of its 170 MW Centinela Solar Energy Project in California's Imperial Valley. The financing was structured with two tranches, combining long-term institutional financing led by Prudential Capital Group (Newark, New Jersey, U.S.) with shorter-term bank financing led by Sovereign Bank N.A. (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.), as coordinating bank and joint lead arranger. Four other joint lead arrangers also participated. Read more

The Demonization of Clean Tech: The Five Biggest Myths

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

The case for technologies that harness renewable resources, improve efficiency, and reduce emissions has never been stronger, and the industry known as clean tech continues to grow at a staggering pace ? global revenues for the "Big Three" sectors of wind power, solar PV, and biofuels hit $246.1 billion in 2011 after a decade of annual growth averaging more than 30 percent. But such an all-encompassing classification ? spanning clean energy, advanced transportation, advanced materials, and clean water technologies ? has lately made the industry an easy target for opposition, especially in the U.S., where divisive national politics have made pragmatism a rare commodity. Read more

Securing Skills for a Successful Offshore Wind Industry

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 14:00 (Renewable Energy World)

Trade group RenewableUK has said that the offshore wind and marine energy sector could support 88,000 jobs in the UK by 2021, up from approximately 10,600 at present. In order to reach this target the right policies and financial conditions must be in place and, as obvious as it may seem, there will need to be an adequate amount of skilled recruits to fill these jobs. Read more

Green Tech States Are Not Necessarily Democratic

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 16:08 (Renewable Energy World)

According to a new report by DBL Investors, a surprising number of clean technology projects are springing up in politically "red" states. The report, entitled "Red, White and Green: The Truest Colors of America's Clean Tech Jobs," is authored by Nancy Pfund and Michael Lazar and was released at SPI this week. Read more

Report finds PV, CSP use far less water than nuclear, fossil fuel generation

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 15:56 (Solarserver)

The Civil Society Institute (Newton, Massachusetts, U.S.) has released a new report looking at water usage among different electricity generation technologies, which finds that solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) plants with dry cooling use far less water than many conventional forms of generation. "The Hidden Costs of Electricity: Comparing the Hidden Costs of Power Generation Fuels" finds that dry-cooled CSP plants use only around 300 liters of water per MWh, less than one-tenth of closed-loop nuclear reactors and one-sixth of the low end for coal generation. Water use for PV generation is also low. Read more

DECC reveals plans for Domestic RHI

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 15:33 (Solarpowerportal)

The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has finally revealed its plans for the future of the domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) after initially announcing the scheme in 2009 and introducing commercial RHI support in November last year. Read more

NIST?s zero-net energy test facility to help develop self-sufficient homes

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 14:15 (PV-Tech)

The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has unveiled the country?s first zero net-energy residential test facility which is located at its campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The institute invited local, federal and state officials to mark the occasion by attending a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Read more

Conto Energia V register now closed

Thursday, 9.20.2012 - 14:08 (PV-Tech)

The Italian energy agency, GSE, has issued a statement declaring the first register for PV systems greater than 12kW closed on September 18. Italy?s Conto Energia V, which began August 27, will be operating with a budget of less than ?530 million. In addition, once the ?6.70 billion cap is reached, Italy will not offer any further incentives for PV installations. Read more