EU PVSEC: Imec and Meco present high-efficiency i-PERC-type silicon solar cells

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 14:49 (PV-Tech)

Belgian nanoelectronics research centre, imec and semiconductor plating equipment supplier, Meco will present high-efficiency i-PERC-type silicon solar cells at EU PVSEC this week. Read more

Washington, D.C. Unanimously Passes Community Solar Legislation

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 20:54 (Renewable Energy World)

The D.C. Council voted unanimously today, October 1st, to pass the Community Renewables Energy Act of 2013 (B20-0057).  With this favorable vote, D.C. becomes the tenth state in the nation to enact community solar legislation.  Other states of note that have passed similar legislation include Colorado, Massachusetts, Vermont, California, and, most Read more

IET to issue code of practice following increase in solar PV popularity

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 19:15 (Solarpowerportal)

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has confirmed that it will be issuing a code of practice for solar PV next year. Read more

Retail Giant IKEA in UK PV System Tie-up

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 15:52 (Renewable Energy World)

Home furnishings major IKEA has announced a new partnership with thin-film solar panel manufacturer Hanergy that will see domestic-scale solar PV installations offered to customers in all of its UK retail outlets. Read more

Retail Giant IKEA to Sell PV Systems in UK, Offers Financing

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 15:52 (Renewable Energy World)

Home furnishings major IKEA has announced a new partnership with thin-film solar panel manufacturer Hanergy that will see domestic-scale solar PV installations offered to customers in all of its UK retail outlets. Read more

Reenergizing Cities with Solar Energy

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 15:40 (Renewable Energy World)

Municipal renewable energy initiatives are hardly a new concept. In many cases the main goal is a heightened environmental sensitivity, and often installing more renewable energy is just one component of broader policies that might also include eco-friendly transportation or more efficient waste management or a district heating system. In other examples, renewable energy has been identified as an engine for economic rejuvenation. Read more

Credit unions to support up to USD 100 million in SunPower residential solar PV system loans

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 15:11 (Solarserver)

SunPower Corp. (San Jose, California, U.S.) and the Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) have formed a partnership which may include up to USD 100 million in loans for SunPower's residential solar photovoltaic (PV) customers in the United States. Read more

EMCORE receives AURP's Innovation Award for high-efficiency multi-junction solar PV cells

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 15:04 (Solarserver)

EMCORE Corporation (Albuquerque, NM, U.S.) on September 27th, 2013, announced that it has received the Association of University Research Parks' (AURP) Innovation Award. The reward was obtained for the company’s development and commercialization of high-efficiency multi-junction solar cells for space and terrestrial photovoltaic (PV) power applications, and presented to EMCORE's President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Hong Q. Hou on September 26th, 2013, at the AURP's International Conference Awards Luncheon. Read more

GTM Research: Significant opportunity for customer acquisition cost reduction in the U.S. solar PV market

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 14:58 (Solarserver)

GTM Research (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.) has released a report which finds that customer acquisition has the greatest potential for near-term cost reduction of any component of U.S. residential solar photovoltaic (PV) system costs. Read more

Exosun selected as supplier for largest French solar PV tracking plant

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 14:53 (Solarserver)

Exosun (Martillac, France) on September 30th, 2013, announced its partnership with French developer and energy producer La Compagnie du Vent, GDF SUEZ Group (Montpellier, France), to build the largest tracker-equipped solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in France. The 12 MW Langelé solar PV plant, equipped with 72 Exotrack HZ trackers, will be installed on 69.2 acres in Landes, in the southwest region of France, and is expected to generate approximately 16.2 megawatt hours (MWh) of solar power per year. Read more

juwi opens subsidiary in Dubai, evaluates large solar PV parks in Africa

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 14:45 (Solarserver)

juwi group (Wörrstadt, Germany) announced to open its new subsidiary Renewable Energies FZCO in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The joint venture between juwi and local corporation Z-One DMCC (Dubai, UAE) will serve customers in North and East Africa and in the Arabic region, acting as an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Partner specifically focusing on investors in solar photovoltaic (PV) projects. The first projects will be realized in the up-coming year, the partners announced. Read more

Concentrating solar power: Wood Group GTS awarded with contract for the installation of two steam turbines and related generating equipment at Mojave Solar Project

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 14:39 (Solarserver)

Wood Group GTS (Houston, Texas, U.S.) has secured a USD 2 million contract for the installation of two GE A-14 steam turbines at the Mojave Solar Project (San Bernardino County, California, U.S.). Wood Group is responsible for equipment installation at the 250MW concentrating solar power plant (CSP), including precision alignment of the “center-line” between steam turbine and turbo-generator by ARB (Lake Forest, CA, U.S.). Read more

First Wind moves into solar with 17MW projects

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 14:15 (PV-Tech)

Massachusetts-based wind-farm developer First Wind has announced that the company’s first solar power projects, comprising 17MW capacity, have begun construction in the company’s home state. Read more

SEUK: GoodWe to launch its new GW1500-SS inverter at Solar Energy UK

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 13:35 (Solarpowerportal)

Chinese solar inverter manufacturer GoodWe Power Supply Technology Co Ltd will be presenting its new GW1500-SS inverter at Solar Energy UK. Read more

India May Announce First National Solar Auction Since 2011 for 750 MW

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 13:24 (Renewable Energy World)

India may announce this month an auction of licenses to build solar-power plants after a gap of almost two years, offering developers as much as 3 billion rupees ($48 million) of direct grants for the first time. Read more

EU PVSEC: Self-consumption holds vast potential as solar business model, says IEA

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 13:14 (PV-Tech)

Self-consumption and other new business models for PV “can reduce and ultimately suppress the reliance on dedicated financial support”, according to Marie Latour, senior national policy advisor at the European Photovoltaic Industry Association. Read more

Exosun to supply largest tracker-equipped plant in France

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 12:59 (PV-Tech)

Tracking system engineering firm Exosun has signed a contract to supply a 12MW solar plant that once completed will be the largest tracker-equipped plant in France. Read more

Chinese solar share prices surge after 50% tax break announced

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 12:15 (PV-Tech)

Chinese solar energy firms saw their share prices surge yesterday after Beijing announced a 50% refund in value added tax. Read more

SEUK: Power-One to demonstrate first residential storage unit at show

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 12:05 (Solarpowerportal)

Inverter manufacturer Power-One will launch its first residential storage unit at Solar Energy UK next week. Read more

Solar PV equipment: Applied Materials unveils new ion implant system

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 9:23 (Solarserver)

Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, California, U.S.) unveiled a new ion implant system for manufacturing N-type solar photovoltaic (PV) cells based on its Solion platform at the EU PVSEC trade show in Paris on September 30th, 2013. The Solion XP Ion Implant System performs in-situ patterned doping, which Applied says allows the production of high-efficiency PV cells with improved yield by removing several manufacturing steps. The company estimates that the system's scanning architecture and scalable design supports processing more than 3,000 wafers per hour with high uptime and reliability. Read more

Concentrating Solar Power: Abengoa completes Extremadura Solar Complex with grid connection of two more 50 MW solar CSP plants

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 8:42 (Solarserver)

Abengoa SA (Seville, Spain) has commissioned two 50 MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in the Extremadura region of Spain, which completes its Extremadura Solar Complex. The Solaben 1 and 6 CSP plants utilize parabolic trough CSP technology. Abengoa has also completed EUR 200 million (USD 270 million) in non-recourse financing for these two plants, which will free up an equivalent amount of equity invested in the projects. The company says that this is the first step in its recently announced divestment plan. Read more

Solar Shakeout: Conergy subsidiary Mounting Systems to cut 52 jobs as talks continue

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 6:15 (PV-Tech)

PV systems manufacturer and developer Conergy has confirmed that 52 employees at its subsidiary Mounting Systems will be let go on 1 October while negotiations are underway with potential buyers. Read more

Powerway joint venture targets solar projects in Pakistan and Middle East

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 6:13 (PV-Tech)

Chinese solar farm developer and mounting manufacturer Powerway has agreed a joint venture with distributor Nizam Energy to develop projects in Pakistan and the Middle East. Read more

Securing the World’s Largest Wind Turbine

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 11:02 (Renewable Energy World)

At 7 MW, Samsung Heavy Industries' S7.0-171 is the world's largest offshore wind turbine. The 196-metre tall structure is being installed 20 metres offshore in Fife, Scotland, with a connecting walkway to enable visitors to get up close to the structure. Read more

Government Shutdown Damages U.S. Energy Innovation

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 20:10 (Renewable Energy World)

The federal government has officially shutdown as of midnight, October 1st 2013 due to Congress’s failure to pass a budget. The 2013 fiscal year ends on September 30th and the government required a new budget to continue operations. The government has been operating on a Continue Resolution — a CR, or an extension of the previous years budget, sinc Read more

Geothermal Industry Must Band Together to Stay Relevant

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 17:08 (Renewable Energy World)

A renewable industry investment executive told geothermal industry leaders in Las Vegas Monday (Sept. 30) that slow growth and unfair renewable tax incentives threatened the future of geothermal power. Read more

EU PVSEC: Gabriel Sala wins Becquerel Prize

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 17:36 (PV-Tech)

The European Commission’s Becquerel Prize for technical and scientific advancement in the field of PV was awarded to Professor Gabriel Sala at the opening of EU PVSEC. Read more

What the US Government Shutdown Means for Renewable Energy

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 17:20 (Renewable Energy World)

So here we are: the U.S. federal government is in shutdown mode after Congress failed to find a compromise. We've seen this several times in the past couple of decades, usually ranging from a few hours to a few days, though the most recent one lasted nearly a month from late 1995 into early January 1996. Read more

Graphene Stock Investing: What The Pros Think

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 11:00 (Renewable Energy World)

Graphene is a crystalline form of carbon in which carbon atoms are arranged in a regular hexagonal pattern. It is very strong, light, and an excellent conductor of heat and electricity. It is also nearly transparent. New laboratory techniques for creating large sheets of graphene, including a roll-to-roll production process, have triggered an explosion of research into new practical applications taking advantage of graphene’s unique properties. Read more

European Commission warns Italy, Spain over failing to comply with renewable energy rules

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 9:29 (Solarserver)

The European Commission (EC) has formally requested that Italy and Spain take action to bring their renewable energy laws into compliance with European directives, which require that nations source 20% of their total energy needs from renewables by 2020. The body has issued a “Reasoned Opinion”, and if Italy and Spain do not take steps to align their policies with directive 2009/28/EC within two months, the Commission may decide to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice. The Association of Renewable Energy Producers (APPA, Spain) has praised the ruling. Read more

U.S., UK governments respond to Climate Change warning

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 8:34 (Solarserver)

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and UK Secretary of State Edward Davey have responded to the September 27th, 2013 release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, with both noting that the report serves as a warning. In response, U.S. Energy Secretary Moniz referred to President Obama's Climate Action Plan issued in June 2013, and the administration's “all-of-the-above” energy strategy. The response from the UK was stronger, with an emphasis on international action including calling for a 30% EU emissions reduction target by 2020. Read more

EU PVSEC opens, Prof. Gabriel Sala awarded Becquerel Prize

Tuesday, 10.1.2013 - 8:21 (Solarserver)

Professor Gabriel Sala of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) was awarded the Becquerel Prize for scientific and technical achievements in solar photovoltaics (PV), on the opening day of the 28th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition (EU PVSEC), September 30th, 2013. EU PVSEC will run until October 4th, 2013. In addition to the exhibits, which begin on October 1st, the conference features 1,600 presentations on PV technologies, markets and applications from researchers at leading institutions and executives from PV companies and organizations around the world. Read more