Power-One impacted by 32% sales decline in Europe; cuts 300 jobs

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 9:00 (PV-Tech)

PV inverter specialist, Power-One reported fourth quarter revenue of US$192 million, within revised guidance but sales declined 32% in Europe, forcing the company to adjust production to demand with the planned loss of 300 jobs. Read more

Kyocera expects strong solar module demand in Q1

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 8:00 (PV-Tech)

Solar module sales at Kyocera are expected to increase significantly in the first quarter of 2013, boosted by a rush to install systems before expected feed-in tariff reductions are introduced at the beginning of April. Read more

Solar Maid expands O&M service coverage to six new locations in the U.S.

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 23:43 (Solarserver)

On January 31st, 2013, Solar Maid Co. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.) announced that it has expanded its service coverage to six new locations in the U.S. The company provides janitorial solar O&M services to the rapidly expanding solar industry. Solar Maid 's services include things like panel washing, snow removal, landscaping, etc. Read more

Asia Report: India Scales Back Subsidies, What it Means for Solar

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 22:38 (Renewable Energy World)

India is targeting a deficit target of 5.3 percent of its GDP for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, but at current spending India will fall short by about 20%, or roughly 2.06 trillion rupee. Among the measures to hit that target are a reduction in subsidies, which has implications for the solar market, reports Bridge to India's Jasmeet Khurana. Read more

Ecotricity solar park exceeds year one generation expectations

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 19:19 (Solarpowerportal)

After 12 months of operation, Ecotricity?s 1MW solar park at Fen Farm has outperformed its original yield expectations despite enduring the wettest weather ever in to hit England. Read more

Czech Republic passes 2GW milestone of solar installations

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 17:50 (PV-Tech)

As expected back in September, 2012 the Czech Republic passed the milestone of over 2GW of cumulative PV installations in December. Read more

Sky Solar obtains financing for three solar parks in the Czech Republic

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 15:53 (PV-Tech)

Sky Solar, an international PV project developer based in China, has announced it has secured the financing for its three solar parks in the Czech Republic. Read more

NRG puts online California's largest solar PV plant

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 15:43 (Solarserver)

NRG Energy Inc. (Princeton, New Jersey, US) has commissioned a 66 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in Los Angeles County as the largest operational PV plant in California. First Solar Inc. (Tempe, Arizona, US) built, and will operate and maintain the Alpine Generating Station, which uses its thin-film cadmium telluride PV modules. NRG will sell the electricity generated by the plant to Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E, San Francisco, California, US) under a 20-year power purchase agreement. Read more

Sky Solar connects 30MW PV plant in Xinjiang, China

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 13:42 (PV-Tech)

Chinese PV project developer Sky Solar has connected its 30MW PV facility located in the city of Alar in the Akesu region in Xinjiang province, China. Read more

JinkoSolar issues US$128 million bond in China

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 13:12 (PV-Tech)

Tier 1 module manufacturer, JinkoSolar has successfully placed a RMB800 million (US$128 million) in bonds after approval from the by the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission?s (NDRC) Financial Division. Read more

LDK Solar to borrow USD 70 million from China Development Bank to invest in polysilicon plant

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 12:58 (Solarserver)

The China Development Bank Corporation (Beijing, China) has approved a USD 70.7 million loan to LDK Solar Company Ltd. (Xinyu, China) to finance a technology upgrade at the LDK's Mahong Polysilicon Plant in Xinyu. LDK states that the financing will be used to invest in hydrochlorination technology, which it says will significantly reduce the cost of silicon production at the plant. The company will access the loan as market conditions improve and the necessary equipment is ready to use. Read more

Hawaii utilities break out new plan to allow for more rooftop solar PV on the grid

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 12:54 (Solarserver)

Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. (HEI, Honolulu, Hawaii, US) has unveiled a new approach to planning for expansion of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the state. HEI and stakeholders have presented the "Proactive Approach" as part of a working group convened by the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. Under the plan HEI will determine how growth in rooftop PV will affect utility circuits and how the grid needs to be upgraded to enable further expansion, with the goal of making it easier to install rooftop PV plants. Read more

SunPower, U.S. Bancorp to finance residential solar leases

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 12:47 (Solarserver)

SunPower Corporation (San Jose, California, US) and U.S. Bancorp (Minneapolis, Minnesota, US) have unveiled a new program to provide up to USD 100 million in financing for residential solar photovoltaic (PV) leases in nine US states. SunPower and U.S. Bancorp both invested in the program as their first partnership of this kind. SunPower leases are available in Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont. Read more

Sharp?s solar operations reduce losses on restructuring and domestic sales boost

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 12:37 (PV-Tech)

Sharp Corporation reported PV product sales of 55.9 billion yen for its FYQ3 2012, up 9.4% compared to the previous quarter. Read more

TSMC reaches 15.1% CIGS solar PV module efficiency

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 9:31 (Solarserver)

TÜV SUD (Munich, Germany) and Underwriters Laboratories (Northbrook, Illinois, US) have both confirmed that TSMC Solar Ltd. (Taichung, Taiwan) has achieved 15.1% efficiency with a commercial-sized copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin film solar photovoltaic (PV) module. The company's champion CIGS module sets a new work record for monolithic thin-film PV module efficiency, and was produced using existing manufacturing equipment and materials at the company's facility in Taichung. Read more

Solar trade war: CASM appeals scope of US tariffs on Chinese solar PV products

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 9:23 (Solarserver)

As previously warned, On February 1st, 2013 the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) filed appeals against the scope of the US trade cases regarding imports of solar photovoltaic (PV) products from China. CASM argues that Chinese-made PV modules should be included in the cases, whether or not the PV cells that comprise them were made in China. In addition to this challenge to the scope, the appeals challenge decisions not to investigate Chinese subsidies on aluminum and rolled glass, and separate duty rates for several large Chinese PV companies. Read more

Envision Solar begins design work on 35 MW "Solar Forest" in North Carolina

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 9:16 (Solarserver)

Envision Solar International Inc. (San Diego, California, US) has begun design work on a 35 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant based on roughly 2,300 of its Solar Tree structures in the US state of North Carolina. This follows on Envision's signing of an MOU with Horizon Energy Group (Maryville, Tennessee, US) and a property owner in North Carolina. Envision expects to begin installing the structures in the second quarter of 2013 and complete the "Solar Forest" by the end of 2014. Read more

Wood-based Biomass Blossoming in Asia

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

In 2012, as Gangnam Style alerted the world to Korean pop, Seoul also made waves in the biomass sector. With a roaring economy to feed, Southeast Asia's emerging powerhouse opted to insert a sizeable slice of wood into its energy mix. Read more

China Had 35% of Onshore Wind Capacity Last Year, BNEF Says

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 20:12 (Renewable Energy World)

China accounted for more than a third of all newly installed onshore wind power capacity last year, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance report. Read more

Yingli Green Energy to implement SAP's ERP and BI solutions

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 23:47 (Solarserver)

On January 31st, 2013, Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. Ltd. (Baoding, China), one of the world's leading vertically integrated photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers announced that it has entered a strategic partnership agreement with SAP AG (Walldorf, Germany). Under the agreement, Yingli Green Energy will implement SAP's enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and business intelligence (BI) solutions. Read more

U.S. DOE expands assistance for tribal clean energy projects

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 23:36 (Solarserver)

On January 30th, 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the second round of the Strategic Technical Assistance Response Team (START) Program to help Tribal communities across the country enhance their energy security and build a sustainable energy future. The START program provides federally recognized Tribal governments with technical assistance to accelerate clean energy project deployment. Read more

Video Research Series: Nanotechnology Can Boost Energy Efficiency in Buildings

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 20:59 (Renewable Energy World)

This monthly video series will highlight renewable and energy efficiency research projects. Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a nanocrystal material that could add a critical energy-saving dimension to ?smart window? coatings. ?We?re really excited about our technology using a solution-based process because tha Read more

Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2013: January Update

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 20:27 (Renewable Energy World)

January has been a great month for clean energy stocks, and the stock market as a whole. My clean energy benchmark, the Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Index (PBW), returned 10.9%, while the broad universe of small cap stocks which I benchmark with the iShares Russell 2000 Index ETF (IWM) is up a lesser but still impressive 9.5%. Read more

Turkey Sees 'Huge' Clean-Energy Investment as Demand Bucks Trend

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 20:19 (Renewable Energy World)

Turkey expects "huge" investments in renewable power in the next 10 years as growth in energy demand outpaces economic expansion, a government official said. Read more

Steven Chu plans to resign as US Secretary of Energy

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 19:06 (PV-Tech)

In a letter to the US Department of Energy on 1 February 2013, Steven Chu revealed his intent to resign from his position as the Secretary of Energy. Read more

Steven Chu plans to resign as US Energy Secretary

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 19:06 (PV-Tech)

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced his intention to step down. Read more

Cameron wants to make UK a ?global showcase for green innovation?

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 18:39 (Solarpowerportal)

David Cameron has laid out his ambitions for the UK to become a global leader in green innovation and energy efficiency. Read more

Cameron wants to make UK ?global showcase for green innovation?

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 18:39 (Solarpowerportal)

David Cameron has laid out his ambitions for the UK to become a global leader in green innovation and energy efficiency. Read more

Cyprus? Ministry of Commerce green-lights 50MW of PV projects

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 18:24 (PV-Tech)

The Cypriot Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Neoclis Sylikiotis, has announced the results of its call for tender for 50MW of PV capacity in Cyprus launched on 30 January 2013. Read more

What are the Barriers to Distributed Renewable Energy?

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 16:22 (Renewable Energy World)

The following presentation by ILSR examines the five major barriers to the expansion of community-based and conventional distributed renewable energy.  The barriers range from the challenge of raising capital to forming a legal structure that allows for local ownership and for access to tax incentives.  It also examines the uphill struggle against Read more

Siliken files for insolvency

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 15:37 (Solarserver)

Siliken SA (Paterna, Spain) and three subsidiaries have filed for insolvency in Spain, as revealed by the nation's Official Bulletin of State on January 28th, 2013. Spanish subsidiaries Siliken Energy SL, Siliken Manufacturing SL and Siliken Chemicals SL have joined the parent company in filing for insolvency. This follows Siliken's USA Inc.'s (Carlsbad, California, US) filing for bankruptcy on January 8th, 2013. Read more

Alternative Energy Investing for 2013

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 15:00 (Renewable Energy World)

2013 is poised to be an exciting year for alternative energy investors. Despite the conflagration solar had in 2012 we see opportunities there, as well as in wind and energy efficiency. This article also reveals why 2013 is shaping up to be a good year for the stock market in general, and alternative energy in particular. Read more

Centrica pulls out of UK new-build nuclear

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 13:17 (Solarpowerportal)

Centrica has announced that it will not be going ahead with the construction of new nuclear power stations at Hinkley Point and Sizewell. Read more

NRG Energy brings 66MW PV facility online in Los Angeles

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 12:33 (PV-Tech)

PV project developer NRG Energy has completed the installation of a 66MW PV facility in Los Angeles and has begun commercial operations. Read more

Order Focus: Yingli Green breaks into emerging Jordanian market

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 12:01 (PV-Tech)

The world?s largest vertically integrated PV manufacturer, Yingli Green has entered the Jordanian PV market with a nominal 65 kilowatts module supply deal with local installer, Kawkabuna for Energy Solutions. Read more

Order Focus: REC supplies 10MW of ?Peak Energy? modules to Indian projects

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 11:24 (PV-Tech)

PV project developers, Euro Solar Power Private Limited and Aatash Power Pvt. Ltd., selected Renewable Energy Corporation?s (REC) ?Peak Energy? modules for separate projects totalling 10MW. Read more

Panasonic?s PV sales in Europe remained weak in FY third quarter

Monday, 2.4.2013 - 8:15 (PV-Tech)

Panasonic reported its Energy segment sales, which includes HIT PV modules of 142.3 billion yen for its FYQ3 2013. Read more