IKEA commissions its largest PV plant to date; 1.6 MW in Round Rock, Texas

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 22:58 (Solarserver)

On September 24th, 2012, home furnishings retailer IKEA officially plugged-in the solar photovoltaic (PV) system installed at its store in Round Rock, Texas, U.S. The Round Rock PV plant is the largest of all IKEA solar installations atop U.S. stores. This, combined with IKEA projects atop stores in Houston and Dallas-area will make IKEA the state's largest solar owner. Read more

Nick Clegg promises to hold Conservatives to their environmental promises

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 19:09 (Solarpowerportal)

Nick Clegg has issued a stark warning to the Conservatives that the Liberal Democrats have not forgotten David Cameron?s environmental promises in the run-up to the general election. Read more

Heraeus opens factory in Taiwan

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 12:07 (Solarserver)

Heraeus (Hanau, Germany) Photovoltaics Business Unit has opened its factory in Taiwan, which it says will allow it to offer faster service and customized products for the Taiwanese solar photovoltaic (PV) market. The new manufacturing facility features an expanded laboratory and production capabilities, and the company has hired and trained local workers. Heraeus plans a grand opening event during the PV Taiwan trade show in October 2012. Read more

Imec presents new c-Si PV technology at EU PVSEC

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 12:01 (Solarserver)

Imec (Leuven, Belgium) has unveiled a host of technical innovations in crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar photovoltaic (PV) technology at the EU PVSEC trade show in Frankfurt (Germany), which is taking place from September 24th - 28th, 2012. These include high-efficiency thin and ultra-thin, large-area crystalline silicon PV cells based on passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) technology. The company also presented a new process for plated front contact formation which can produce cells with a conversion efficiency of 20.3%. Read more

EU ProSun files second complaint with EC over Chinese PV subsidies

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 10:01 (Solarserver)

The EU ProSun trade group has filed a second complaint with the European Commission (EC), alleging that Chinese solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers are receiving illegal subsidies. This complaint is separate from the anti-dumping complaint that it filed with the EC on July 24th, 2012, but the group notes that both dumping and certain kinds of government support for exports are illegal under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Read more

Schott, Schmid reach 21% solar cell efficiency with PERC technology

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 9:50 (Solarserver)

Schott Solar (Mainz, Germany) and the Schmid Group (Freudenstadt, Germany) have reached new efficiencies with passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, which the companies say represents the successful transfer of Schott's technology. The companies have reached 21.0% efficiency with a PERC cell with optimized screen-printed silver contacts, and a 20.74% efficiency with a PERC cell using Schmid's APCVD aluminum oxide passivation. Both efficiencies were independently verified by ISE CalLab in September 2012. Read more

JA Solar begins double-digit capacity shipments to CGN, CPI

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 23:15 (PV-Tech)

JA Solar Holdings announced that it has begun shipping modules to both China Guangdong Nuclear Solar Energy Development (CGN) and China Power Investment Corporation (CPI). JA Solar signed a supply agreement with subsidiaries of CGN for an initial 30MW of modules, which will be delivered by the end of this year. The total 70MW shipment to CGN will see the modules used at projects in China?s Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces. Read more

Isofoton enters JV to build 300MW of PV facilities in Saudi Arabia

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 23:15 (PV-Tech)

Isofoton recently revealed that as of August 15, it had signed a joint venture agreement with Saudi Arabian company Industrial Systems (INDSYS) for the installation of 300MW of PV plant facilities throughout the Middle East, North Africa and India region. The agreement will see both companies develop and construct the projects, which include installations in Saudi Arabia, a country which aims to install about 14GW of solar PV facilities by 2030. Read more

Canadian Solar supplies modules for 3.6 MW PV plant in Germany

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 23:02 (Solarserver)

On September 24th, 2012, Canadian Solar Inc. (Guelph, Canada) announced that it has supplied solar modules for a 3.6 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) rooftop plant in Hamburg-Wittenburg, Germany. The PV plant, which is owned and operated by Dutch Van der Valk Group, will not only offset operator's energy costs, but will also reduce the power needed to run the cooling system, Canadian Solar emphasizes. Read more

Order Focus: JinkoSolar to supply 40MW of PV modules to solar plants in China

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 22:15 (PV-Tech)

JinkoSolar Holdings advised that it had won a 40MW contract from China Power International New Energy Holding. JinkoSolar will be supplying its modules for two PV power plants in Baiyin and Wuwei cities in Gansu Province, China. The company will deliver 163,200 of its solar panels for the two projects. Read more

Activ Solar commissions first phase of 43.1 MW PV plant in Odessa, Ukraine

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 15:41 (Solarserver)

Activ Solar (Vienna, Austria) has commissioned the first 21.5 MW phase of a 43.1 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in the Odessa region of Ukraine. The company expects to complete the second phase of the Dunayskaya Power Station by the end of October 2012. This is the company's second PV plant in Odessa, following the 42.9 MW Starokozache PV plant which was commissioned in July 2012. Read more

Aleo Solar ends Chinese joint venture Avim, factory to close

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 15:35 (Solarserver)

Aleo Solar AG (Prenzlau, Germany) has ended joint venture (JV) Avim Solar Production Company Ltd. (Gaomi, China), via a decision of the board. This will include a shutdown of the facility where the joint venture produced solar photovoltaic (PV) modules under the Avim brand. The factory employed 246 workers. The plant has an annual production capacity of 90 MW and began production at the end of 2008. Read more

Leafy Green Power: Spinach is Key Ingredient in Solar Breakthrough

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

This month, a breakthrough at Vanderbilt University brought us closer to achieving solar power efficiencies on par with plants. Read more

Domestic solar market shrinks by 80 percent following August FiT cut

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 12:13 (Solarpowerportal)

The solar industry is still coming to terms with the Department of Energy and Climate Change?s new tri-monthly degression model that saw the feed-in tariff tumble from 21p/kWh down to 16p/kWh in August. Read more

Concentrating solar power in Morocco: ACWA chosen to build CSP plant at Ouarzazate

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 11:49 (Solarserver)

The Moroccan Solar Energy Agency (MASEN, Rabat, Morocco) has selected a consortium led by the International Company for Water and Power (ACWA, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) to build a 160 MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant near Ouarzazate (Morocco). Aries Ingeniería y Sistemas SA (Madrid, Spain) and TSK EE (Gijón, Spain) will join ACWA for the design, finance, construction, operation and maintenance of the plant, at an estimated development cost of USD 1 billion. The companies plan to begin work on the plant by the end of 2012 and complete the plant near the end of 2014. Read more

"Stop RIN Fraud Act" Introduced to Congress: Is It a Viable Biofuels Solution?

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 16:37 (Renewable Energy World)

Legislation was introduced Thursday in the House of Representatives that would give the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the authority to accredit third parties to certify Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN) used to buy and trade renewable fuels, including biodiesel and ethanol. Read more

Biggest English Polluter Spends $1 Billion to Convert Coal Plant to Biomass

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 15:38 (Renewable Energy World)

More than two centuries after coal power helped forge the world's first industrial economy, Britain is going back to burning wood. Read more

Bangchak Public Petroleum connects South East Asia?s largest PV plant

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 12:14 (PV-Tech)

On September 4, Thai oil company Bangchak Public Petroleum Co. (BPP) connected its 44MW PV plant in Thailand ? the largest silicon PV power plant in South East Asia, it claims. It is located in Bang Pa-In, Ayutthaya, which is around 40km from the country?s capital Bangkok. Read more

Google's Shout Out to a Wind Energy Deal with Utility

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 17:00 (Renewable Energy World)

Google has made it a corporate mission to embrace renewable energy, and on Wednesday the company said it's signed its first clean power contract with a utility to buy wind energy to run its data center in Oklahoma. Read more

Nevada Geothermal May Transfer Declining Power Plant to Lender

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 16:28 (Renewable Energy World)

Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (NGP), the renewable-energy developer that received a U.S. loan guarantee, may transfer ownership of a Nevada power plant to a lender after projecting the facility will produce less power than expected. Read more

Pike Research: U.S. military to increase investments in renewable energy up to USD 1.8 billion in 2025

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 22:53 (Solarserver)

On September 24th, 2012, Pike Research (Boulder, Colorado, U.S.) has released a report stating that the U.S. military's spending on renewable energy programs will increase steadily over the next 12 years, reaching almost USD 1.8 billion in 2025. Driven by a combination of legislation, national and international policy, strategic imperatives, and operational requirements, clean technologies are moving into the mainstream of the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) spending, and the DOD is now one of the most important drivers of clean energy markets in the U.S. Read more

Poll finds that 89% of US adults want renewable energy as part of country?s future energy supply

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 22:15 (PV-Tech)

There are only seven weeks before the US decides who will be at the helm of the country for the next four years so Sungevity and Ipsos took advantage of the major election year and conducted a survey on clean energy. The survey found that nine in ten, or 89%, of US adults want to see more renewable energy sources, including solar, play a bigger part in the country?s future energy supply. Of the respondents, 80% expect their elected officials to support solar energy initiatives and 81% believe that regardless of who takes the White House this January, it and other federal and state residences should use solar energy. Read more

Yingli issues statements rejecting accusations of its participation in illegal subsidization

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 22:15 (PV-Tech)

Yingli Green Energy Holding?s held up a defensive front today as it issued a statement rejecting any accusations that it had illegally subsidized its products. The statement is in response to accusations in an anti-subsidy complaint filed by EuProsun, which was submitted to the European Commission yesterday. Read more

Emcore and NASA continue partnership, this time for ICESat 2 spacecraft

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 22:15 (PV-Tech)

Emcore was recently tapped by Orbital Sciences to provide its technology for NASA?s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Sattellite-2 (ICESat-2). The mission has a target launch date for early 2016 and will be using precision laser-ranging techniques to measure the topography of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and the thickness of sea ice. Read more

View: California Newspaper Gets the Facts Wrong on Renewable Energy

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 15:48 (Renewable Energy World)

Yet again, the Los Angeles Times has published an attack on renewable energy masquerading as journalism. The front-page Friday article, "Taxpayers, Ratepayers Will Fund California Solar Plants," commits the journalistic faux pas of not even citing or quoting the "other side" in the debate about the true cost of solar power. More importantly, it gets the facts wrong. Very wrong. Read more

The Co-operative Bank triples renewable energy lending

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 15:01 (Solarpowerportal)

The Co-operative Bank has announced a dramatic increase in the number of renewable energy products it has funded. Throughout 2012, increased demand from developers looking to invest in renewable solutions drove to an almost tripling of lending. Read more

Japan formalizes phase out of nuclear power, calls for decentralized power system

Wednesday, 9.26.2012 - 9:55 (Solarserver)

Japan's cabinet has approved the complete phase-out of nuclear power in its new long-term energy strategy, while calling for the creation of a new decentralized electricity system based on renewable energy. "Revolutionary Energy Strategy" was approved by Japan's cabinet on September 14th, 2012. The document calls for the building of no new nuclear power plants, operating only those assured safe by regulators, and not allowing existing plants to operate longer than 40 years. Read more