FERC proposes reforms to fast-track small-scale PV interconnection

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 18:59 (PV-Tech)

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has proposed reforms which will enable certain small-scale power generation projects including solar to qualify for a faster interconnection process. Read more

Hanwha Q-Cells to sponsor Clean Energy Week in Australia

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 18:05 (Solarserver)

On January 11th, 2013, Clean Energy Council announced that Hanwha Q.CELLS has signed on as the major sponsor of Clean Energy Week 2013, which is Australia's biggest industry event for renewable energy and energy efficiency. Clean Energy Week will be held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre from July 24th, 2013, through July 26th, 2013. Read more

SOLFEX to stock Enphase?s range of microinverters

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 17:16 (Solarpowerportal)

Lancashire-based distributor SOLFEX has announced that it will be stocking Enphase?s range of microinverters. Read more

Sungevity completes USD 125 million in financing

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 9:54 (Solarserver)

Sungevity Inc. (Oakland, California, US) has completed USD 125 million in financing arrangements, including USD 40 million in equity financing and USD 85 million in new project financing. Sungevity says that its new project financing will be used to support the deployment of solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in the nine US states that the company currently operates in. Sungevity's venture capital funding includes new investors Vision Ridge Partners LLC, Craton Equity Partners and Eastern Sun Capital Partners LLC. Read more

FERC Proposes Rule to Speed Up Solar Energy Grid Interconnection

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 20:35 (Renewable Energy World)

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has proposed changes to a rule that will speed up the process and reduce the costs to interconnect smaller-sized solar power projects to the grid while maintaining system reliability and safety. The changes were necessary, the organization claims, because of market changes that were due to state renewable energy goals and policies. Read more

SunPower installs 7.5 MW solar PV plant at water treatment plant in Phoenix, Arizona

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 18:19 (Solarserver)

On January 15th, 2013, SunPower Corp. (San Jose, California, U.S.) announced that it has installed a 7.5-megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant at Lake Pleasant water treatment plant in city of Phoenix, Arizona. The 22,936-panel PV system is expected to cover 70% of the plant's electrical power needs. Read more

TerniEnergia completes 23 MW of solar PV plants in Greece

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 18:16 (Solarserver)

On January 14th, 2013, TerniEnergia S.p.A (Terni, Italy) announced that it has completed eight new utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants in Greece in the fourth quarter of 2012. The PV plants, with a combined generation capacity of 23.1 megawatts (MW), have been realized for important European utilities and their vehicle companies, all without the panels supply. Read more

Vote Solar: Net metering to provide over USD 92 million in benefits to California ratepayers

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 18:11 (Solarserver)

On January 15th, 2013, Vote Solar Initiative (San Francisco, California, U.S.) announced that it has released a July 2012 California Solar Initiative (CSI) report. The report finds that net-metered rooftop solar photovoltaics (PV) will provide more than USD 92 million in annual benefits to ratepayers of California's three investor-owned utilities. Read more

Trina Solar supplies 61MW of PV modules to Green Tower project

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 16:46 (PV-Tech)

Trina Solar has announced that it has supplied PV modules totaling 61MW for the Green Tower project in the German state of Brandenburg. Read more

SolarCity offers Long Island residents solar power for ?less than the price of a tank of gas?

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 16:37 (PV-Tech)

US energy provider SolarCity has announced that it is offering to supply solar power to residents on Long Island, New York, for ?less than the price of a tank of gas?. Read more

Latin America Report: Canadian-Led Consortium Taps Solar Power from Ecuador

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 16:36 (Renewable Energy World)

A consortium of renewable energy developers led by Canadian firms Solexica Energy Corp., JCM Capital, and Radical Energy Inc. has signed a 20-year concession agreement with CONELEC (Consejo Nacional de Electricidad) to purchase electricity generated by solar power plants in the Republic of Ecuador. Power from the plants, a combined generation of 62.5-megawatt-peak (50-MW AC), will be purchased at US 40.03 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and distributed to the national electric grid. Read more

Trina Solar supplies 61 MW of PV modules to Green Tower PV project

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 15:53 (Solarserver)

Trina Solar Ltd. (Changzhou, China) reports that it supplied 61 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules for the Green Tower project on a former airfield in the German state of Brandenburg. Trina provided more than 252,000 multicrystalline PV modules for the plant, each with an average output of more than 240 watts. The Green Tower project has already been commissioned. Read more

Sungevity eyes longevity with US$125 million funding

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 15:49 (PV-Tech)

US solar developer Sungevity has announced the completion of a series of venture capital and project financings which, together, have secured the company up to $125 million in funding. Read more

Sungevity eyes longevity with $125 million funding

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 15:49 (PV-Tech)

US solar developer Sungevity has announced the completion of a series of venture capital and project financings which, together, have secured the company up to $125 million in funding. Read more

Top fund manager to speak at Solar Business Expo

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 14:52 (PV-Tech)

Investment director Edward Douglas from Singapore-based Armstrong Asset Management is the latest leading solar energy expert to confirm he will be speaking at the inaugural Solar Business Expo Southeast Asia in Thailand this March. Read more

XsunX announces start of CIGSolar CIS processing

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 14:42 (PV-Tech)

California-based XsunX has announced it has begun processing CIS films with its recently completed CIGSolar thin-film PV solar cell evaporation system. Read more

PV equipment spending falls by 72% in 2012

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 12:39 (PV-Tech)

Solar PV equipment spending was down US$3.6 billion in 2012 from US$12.9 billion in 2011, according to new research in the latest NPD Solarbuzz PV Equipment Quarterly report. Read more

Science Museum and Swindon Council look to develop UK?s largest solar farm

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 12:32 (Solarpowerportal)

The Science Museum is planning to install the UK?s largest solar farm at its big-object store in Wroughton, Wiltshire. Read more

Solar thermal, solar PV systems not eligible for Green Deal Cashback in UK

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 12:08 (Solarserver)

UK residents who install solar thermal or solar photovoltaic (PV) systems will not be eligible for rebates under the Department of Energy and Climate Change's (DECC) Green Deal Cashback program, as they receive other subsidies. Read more

Energy Department announces $12 million to bring solar technologies to market

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 11:22 (PV-Tech)

The US Energy Department has today announced the availability of US$12 million to accelerate solar energy innovation that could help reduce manufacturing and installation costs for homes, businesses and utilities. Read more

Heliatek achieves 12% efficiency with solar OPV cell

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 9:59 (Solarserver)

Heliatek GmbH (Dresden, Germany) has reached a new world record for organic photovoltaic (OPV) conversion efficiency at 12.0% on a 1.1 square centimeter cell. This efficiency was measured by SGS SA (Geneva, Switzerland). The record-setting cell is based on a multi-junction OPV cell design, where two different absorber materials convert light of different wavelengths. Read more

Komax Solar orders collapse during 2012, workforce reduced by more than 50%

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 9:49 (Solarserver)

Komax Holding AG (Dierikon, Switzerland) has reported an 86% decline to USD 9.7 million in orders in its solar division in preliminary 2012 results. As a result, the division reduced its staffing levels by more than 50% during the year, primarily affecting its site in the US state of Pennsylvania and other locations outside Switzerland. Komax does not expect demand to improve until 2014. Read more

NLP Solar Sales Training | 2 New Residential Loan Programs | Live Webinar Jan 30th & 31st

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 0:01 (Renewable Energy World)

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Mitsubishi Backs German Offshore Wind Projects With $765 Million

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

Mitsubishi Corp., Japan's largest trading house by market value, is investing $765 million to aid Germany's renewable energy shift by helping TenneT Holding BV connect sea-based wind farms to the power grid. Read more

Renewable Energy Provides Half of All New US Electrical Generating Capacity in 2012

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 17:24 (Renewable Energy World)

According to the latest "Energy Infrastructure Update" report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's Office of Energy Projects, renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) accounted for 49.10% of all new domestic electrical generating capacity installed in the twelve months of 2012 for a total of 12,956 MW. More than a quarter of that new capacity (25.29% - 3,276 MW) came online in the month of December 2012 alone. Read more

Developers Will Invest 1.9 Trillion in Clean Energy Over Next Five Years

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 16:40 (Renewable Energy World)

Developers and financiers will invest $1.9 trillion building clean-energy power plants worldwide from 2012 through 2018 as demand for electricity increases, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts. Read more

UN: African Renewable Energy Projects Stagnating Due to Investment Risk

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 16:13 (Renewable Energy World)

Africa is lagging the rest of the world in obtaining funds for renewable energy projects because development banks aren't assuming enough of the political risk of working there, United Nations officials said. Read more

Energy storage trade group formed in Germany

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 15:46 (Solarserver)

In an effort to bring together the relevant energy decision makers in the sector, offer expertise and speed the development of the market, members of the energy storage sector have formed a new trade group in Germany. Fraunhofer ISE Director Dr. Eicke Weber will serve as founding president of the Germany Energy Storage Association (BVES, Berlin, Germany), which was formed at the end of September 2012. SEMI Europe PV Group Chairman Dr. Harald Binder will serve as managing director. Read more

YFEL members propose off-grid PV project in UAE and sub-saharan Africa

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 15:23 (PV-Tech)

A group of ten members from the Young Future Energy Leaders (YFEL) programme has proposed a new off-grid rooftop PV project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and sub-saharan Africa. Read more

Financing for Mid-Sized Renewable Energy Projects

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 14:00 (Renewable Energy World)

Between the residential and utility sized RE projects, there are more and more distributed generation projects in the $100,000 to $1 million range. Rather than paying cash, many customers would prefer monthly lease payments as this reduces the capital requirement and often increases the return on their investment. As an example, a $500,000 rooftop solar PV install for $500,000 would have monthly payments between $4,000 and $6,000 over a 7- to 10-year lease term. Read more

Masdar, France to collaborate on renewable energy

Thursday, 1.17.2013 - 12:17 (Solarserver)

At the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, Masdar (Abu Dhabi, UAE) signed a joint declaration with France to collaborate on renewable energy research and project development. Masdar states that the declaration paves the way for the company to work closely with French companies and institutions, including in co-development of new commercially viable technologies, exchanging expertise, human capital development, and sharing experience with policies and regulations. The agreement also covers energy efficiency. Read more