Tenaska announces sale of interest in PV project to Prudential Capital Group in California

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 16:52 (Solarserver)

Tenaska (Omaha, NE, U.S.) on October 28th, 2013, announced that Prudential Capital Group (Newark, NJ, U.S.) has agreed to acquire a minority interest in the Tenaska Imperial Solar Energy Center South project, a 130-megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) plant near El Centro, California, currently owned by a Tenaska affiliate. Tenaska Imperial South is one of the largest commercially financed solar PV projects in the U.S. to date and was the first utility-scale solar project to begin construction in California’s Imperial Valley. Read more

Suntech to challenge bankruptcy proceedings

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 16:39 (PV-Tech)

Debt-ridden solar manufacturer Suntech has announced its intention to challenge the petition for involuntary bankruptcy brought against it by investors. Read more

Wuxi Guolian proposes USD 150 million investment in Suntech

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 15:02 (Solarserver)

State-owned Wuxi Guolian Development Group Co. Ltd. (Wuxi, China) has sent an investment letter of intent to Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (Wuxi, China), proposing an equity investment of USD 150 million in cash along with a restructuring of the financial and operation affairs of the company. Read more

Crowdsourcing Energy: A Case for Feed-in Tariffs

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 14:48 (Renewable Energy World)

Crowdsourcing is taking off in almost every area one can imagine – including energy. In fact, energy was one of the first areas to be crowdsourced, but under the very unsexy name, “feed-in tariff.” Congress passed the first crowdsourcing of energy law, under the also-very-unsexy name, the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA), in 1978. Read more

SunPower raises 2013 guidance, plans new factory

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 12:15 (PV-Tech)

US-based manufacturer SunPower has raised its outlook for 2013, predicting revenues of between US$2.52 billion US$2.57 billion. Read more

Parts of Germany's SPD hints at abandoning the feed-in tariff

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 11:13 (Solarserver)

In the run-up to talks aimed at creating a coalition government in Germany, the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has shown signs that it may be preparing to betray the Energy Transition that it helped create. North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) State Premier Hannelore Kraft (SPD) has told newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that jobs protection in energy and energy-intensive industries is more important than rapid expansion of renewable energy. Premier Kraft will be the SPD's chief negotiator in the energy-related portion of coalition talks. Read more

Navigant predicts 52.7 GW of PV module-level power electronics to be installed by 2020

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 9:09 (Solarserver)

Navigant Research (Boulder, Colorado, U.S.) has released a new report which predicts that the global market for solar photovoltaic (PV) micro-inverters and DC power optimizers will grow rapidly, with 52.7 GW of module-level power electronics (MLPE) to be installed to accompany solar PV generation between 2013 and 2020. “Micro-inverters and DC Optimizers” finds that these technologies are contributing to the strong growth of distributed solar photovoltaics (PV) primarily in the United States but also globally. It also notes that these technologies have gained substantial market share in the residential PV sector, and are now targeting commercial installations. Read more

First Solar revenues shoot past USD 1 billion in Q3 2013 on project successes

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 22:58 (Solarserver)

First Solar Inc. (Tempe, Arizona, U.S.) has released third quarter 2013 results, reporting a 51% year-over-year increase in revenues to USD 1.27 billion, a 16% operating margin and a net income of USD 195 million. Read more

UK domestic solar installations hit 1.3GW

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 19:11 (Solarpowerportal)

The latest solar PV installation figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) reveal that the domestic market has hit 1.3GW. Read more

Real Goods Solar completes 2.2 MW solar PV farm in Vermont

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 16:56 (Solarserver)

RGS Energy, the commercial and utility division of Real Goods Solar, Inc. (Louisville, Colorado, U.S.), and St. Albans Solar Partners, LLC (St. Albans, VT, USA) has completed a new 2.2 megawatt solar photovoltaic (PV) farm ahead of schedule. The fixed array ground-mount solar PV system in Saint Albans is expected to generate approximately 3.1 million kilowatt hours of solar power (kWh) annually, and it is the largest PV system in Vermont. Read more

JinkoSolar supplies 1.2 MW of PV modules to SolaireDirect for power plant in Chile

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 16:46 (Solarserver)

JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China) on October 30th, 2013, announced that it has supplied solar photovoltaic (PV) modules totalling 1.2 MW to SolaireDirect SA (Paris, France) for a solar PV plant in Chile. The PV facility is remotely supervised and operated, with regularly scheduled maintenance and inspection by SolaireDirect's operators. Read more

Kyocera raises solar panel sales target 20% to 1.2GW

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 16:30 (PV-Tech)

Kyocera has increased the annual sales target for its solar module business from 1GW to 1.2GW. Read more

The Worst Is Over? Solar Industry Rebounds

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 15:34 (Renewable Energy World)

Solar industry manufacturers are rebounding from a two-year slump faster than technology companies recovered from the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s. Read more

Kyocera solar PV sales boom in quarterly results, guidance increased

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 14:33 (Solarserver)

Kyocera Corp. (Kyoto, Japan) has released financial results for the quarter ending September 30th, 2013, reporting a 54% year-over-year growth in revenues to USD 672 million and a 10% operating margin in its division that makes solar photovoltaic (PV) products. Read more

315MW power purchase agreement signed in Andhra Pradesh

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 14:27 (PV-Tech)

Global renewables project developer, New Generation Power, and engineer, procurement and construction company, Premier Solar Group have signed a power purchase agreement for 315MW of solar energy in Andhra Pradesh. Read more

Former environment ministers join plea to ‘save’ French PV industry

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 13:24 (PV-Tech)

Leading PV industry and political figures have sent an open letter to the French government imploring it to hold a consultation regarding the proposed review of the country’s solar feed-in tariff (FiT). Read more

Hanergy Solar Group announces 19MW solar PV project in the U.S.

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 11:18 (Solarserver)

Hanergy Solar Group Limited (Kowloon, Hong Kong) announced that HGSG-NA Land Power 1, LLC (Wilmington, DE, U.S.), a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, entered into a purchase and sale agreement with LSP Generation Holdings LLC for the acquisition of the entire equity interests of Columbia Solar Energy, LLC (Pleasanton, CA, U.S.). The target company is formed in Delaware, U.S., and is in the course of developing a 19MW AC solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Pittsburg, California, utilising thin-film copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar PV modules. Read more

Conergy to build 22 MW of solar PV plants in the Philippines

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 11:03 (Solarserver)

A joint venture between investment bank ThomasLloyd (Zurich) and a Philippine developer has hired Conergy AG (Hamburg, Germany) to build two solar photovoltaic (PV) plants totaling 22 MW in the Philippines. This will be the company's first order in the nation and the largest PV project in the Philippines to date. Conergy will serve as general contractor and will be responsible for planning, engineering, supply and construction of a 13 MW and a 9 MW PV plant, which together will comprise 88,300 Conergy P-Series PV modules. Conergy expects to complete the two plants in the first half of 2013. Read more

NRDC Launches Solar Schools Crowdfunding Campaign

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 11:02 (Renewable Energy World)

Over the past few years, the terms 'crowdfunding' or 'kickstarting' have taken off, much like the projects or startup companies that the fundraising campaigns are helping reach fruition. Now a somewhat unlikely organization has jumped into the fray, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which is aiming to install solar on schools as soon as Read more

Local content requirement could slow Saudi Arabia’s solar development: IHS

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 10:12 (PV-Tech)

The requirement for local content in Saudi Arabia’s early solar power tenders could mean it misses out on global cost cuts, according to IHS. Read more

SunPower to Boost Capacity 25% with Plants Running at Full Speed

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 9:39 (Renewable Energy World)

SunPower Corp., the second-largest U.S. solar-panel maker, plans to boost manufacturing capacity 25 percent as it runs its existing plants at full speed to meet surging demand. Read more

Solar Server news featured on new Solar/Channel mobile app

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 9:02 (Solarserver)

InPress Media Group LLC (Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.) has launched the first solar content community for mobile devices including Android smartphones, iPhones and iPads, which features the solarserver.com news feed. The Solar/Channel app also includes content by Greentech Media, Renewable Energy World, SolarCurator, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and the International PV Equipment Association (IPVEA). The app can be downloaded from Apple and Android stores for free. Read more

NPD Solarbuzz: Yingli Green, Canadian Solar and Trina Solar to hit record shipments in Q3 2013

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 1:01 (PV-Tech)

Several leading tier one Chinese photovoltaic module manufacturers are expected to post record solar PV module shipment figures for the third quarter of 2013, according to market research firm NPD Solarbuzz. Read more

The Arab Oil Embargo, Sandy, and Adapting to New Realities

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 10:48 (Renewable Energy World)

This month marks the anniversaries of two notable events, decades apart yet related in terms of historical impact, awareness of vulnerability, and challenge to business as usual: the Arab oil embargo 40 years ago (Oct. 19-20, 1973) and Superstorm Sandy, which hit the Northeast on Oct. 29 last year. Both events sparked a national and global focus on two concepts I’ve been hearing quite a bit about in recent months: adaptation and resilience. Read more

Renewable energy transition behind ‘remarkable’ slowdown in CO2 emissions

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 14:15 (PV-Tech)

The increase in global carbon dioxide emissions slowed last year because of a shift towards renewable energy usage, a major new study claims. Read more

New bill proposes US utilties purchase 25% of energy from renewables

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 13:24 (PV-Tech)

US Senator for Colorado, Mark Udall and his cousin, Tom Udall, senator for New Mexico have teamed up to introduce renewables legislation for utilities. Read more

Fallon: ‘Green levies review’ to include all renewable support

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 12:15 (Solarpowerportal)

The minister of state for energy Michael Fallon has said that the Coalition government is scrutinising all green levies, undermining the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s recent reassurance that renewable support is not being reviewed. Read more

KfW to provide €654 million loan for Moroccan CSP project

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 10:20 (PV-Tech)

German state development bank KfW is to provide €654 million (US$900 million) for a Moroccan CSP project. Read more

REA: Mixed political messages are undermining green investor confidence

Thursday, 10.31.2013 - 9:00 (Solarpowerportal)

The Renewable Energy Association (REA) has warned that mixed political messages run the risk of undermining new jobs and investment in the UK’s renewable sector. Read more