Enel installs 88 MW of PV plants in H1 2013

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 11:14 (Solarserver)

Enel Green Power SpA (Rome) has filed its half-year report, reporting that it has installed 88 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) plants in the first six months of 2013, to reach 249 MW of PV installed globally. The company currently has another 17 MW of PV plants under development in Romania, which involve a capital investment of EUR 37 million (USD 49 million). Enel builds and operates hydroelectric, wind, geothermal, biomass and PV plants, and the company's financial statements are not disaggregated by technology. Read more

Sunways to avoid insolvency proceedings, reaches deals with bank

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 8:57 (Solarserver)

Sunways AG (Konstanz, Germany) has reached an agreement with former banks to avert insolvency proceedings, as well as an agreement with key suppliers for the settlement of receivables and remaining claims. A local German court had issued an order for preliminary insolvency proceedings against Sunways' assets, following an application by BW Bank (Stuttgart, Germany) arising from an issue with credit facilities. Through the agreement, Sunways will make payments on this debt of EUR 5.6 million (USD 7.5 million) by November 2013 and another EUR 1 million (USD 1.3 million) by August 2015. Read more

Centrotherm Photovoltaics completes reorganization, recapitalizes

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 8:54 (Solarserver)

Centrotherm Photovoltaics AG (Blaubueren, Germany) has concluded its financial reorganization, including a capital reduction, a capital increase and the coversion of unsecured creditor's claims into shares of the company. During this process the share capital of Centrotherm was reduced to EUR 4.32 million in a 5:1 consolidation, followed by the issuance of 16.9 million new shares. Creditors exchanged 70% of their shares for stock, and the remaining 30% will be deferred until 2015 without collecting interest. Read more

California sets a new record for utility-scale solar PV, CSP output at 2.57 GW

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 23:33 (Solarserver)

California's Independent System Operator (ISO) reports that the output of the state's utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) plants reached 2.57 GW of output at 12:44 PM on August 9th, 2013. Read more

California sets a new record for output of utility-scale solar PV, CSP output at 2.57 GW

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 22:58 (Solarserver)

California's Independent System Operator (ISO) reports that the output of the state's utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP) plants reached 2.57 GW of output at 12:44 PM on August 9th, 2013. Read more

IHS: First Solar dominates EPC rankings

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 18:10 (PV-Tech)

Although the downstream market shift from East to West is resulting in higher growth rates for PV engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms in Asia, leading PV energy provider (PVEP), First Solar continues to top the EPC rankings with more single projects primarily in the US, compared to its rivals, according to IHS. Read more

Lost in Translation: Speaking to Your Solar Customer’s Language and Needs

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 16:52 (Renewable Energy World)

It’s often said that you can make only one first impression. Whether that’s meeting your in-laws for the first time, sending an email to a potential solar client, or designing a solar tradeshow booth, you must represent yourself authentically, yet consider your client’s values and expectations as well. I bring this up because I constantly receive e Read more

Lost in Translation: Speaking Your Solar Customer’s Language

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 16:52 (Renewable Energy World)

It’s often said that you can make only one first impression. Whether that’s meeting your in-laws for the first time, sending an email to a potential solar client, or designing a solar tradeshow booth, you must represent yourself authentically, yet consider your client’s values and expectations as well. I bring this up because I constantly receive e Read more

Reports: LDK Solar holds polysilicon production until ASP reached US$23/kg

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 16:38 (PV-Tech)

According to reports, citing LDK Solar’s President and CEO, Sam Tong the company is not planning to start polysilicon production again until the price has reached US$23/kg. Read more

Amtech continues to reduce headcount to weather solar equipment drought

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 16:02 (PV-Tech)

Looking at 2014 for better visibility in the next technology and buy cycle in the PV manufacturing sector, tool supplier Amtech Systems continues to preserve cash with further cost reductions including staffing levels. Read more

IHS: First Solar to install more than 1 GW of solar PV in 2013

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 15:36 (Solarserver)

IHS Inc. (Englewood, Colorado, U.S.) predicts that in 2013 First Solar Inc. (Tempe, Arizona, U.S.) will install 1.1 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) plants, to become the first engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor to break the 1 GW threshold. Read more

Securum Equity Partners terminates “OneGiga” solar PV project, will sue Serbia

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 14:55 (Solarserver)

Securum Equity Partners International Ltd. (Malta) has officially terminated its project to build network of 100 solar photovoltaic (PV) plants 10 MW in capacity in Serbia, stating that the Serbian Government refused to provide the 3,000 hectares of suitable land to build the project. Read more

JinkoSolar supplies 2.2 MW of PV modules to California ground-mount project

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 14:21 (Solarserver)

JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China) on August 9th, 2013 announced that it has supplied 2.2 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules to HMC Farms (Kingsburg, CA.), which will span across 390,000 square feet of ground space and enable HMC to significantly hedge against rising electric utility charges on two cold storage and packaging meters. Read more

3.5MW solar farm proposed for Westbury landfill site

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 14:13 (Solarpowerportal)

A disused landfill site in Westbury could be repurposed into a 3.5MW solar farm following a planning application from the site’s operator, Viridor. Read more

Go ahead for 230MW of new solar in Uttar Pradesh

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 13:52 (PV-Tech)

Seven private companies and one public joint venture have received a letter of intent for 230MW of solar projects in Uttar Pradesh. Read more

Western Australia Backs Down on Solar Feed-in Tariff Cut

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 13:31 (Renewable Energy World)

Western Australia’s government today announced a reversal of its earlier decision to retrospectively halve its AUD $0.40/kWh feed-in tariff (FiT) for residential solar power, only four days after announcing it. Read more

Solarbuzz: Leading solar PV producers reach record shipment levels in Q2’13, gain market shares

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 13:27 (Solarserver)

Quarterly solar photovoltaic (PV) module shipments for the 20 leading manufacturers exceeded 5.8 gigawatts (GW) during the second quarter of 2013 according to findings in the new NPD Solarbuzz (Santa Clara, Calif. U.S.) “Module Tracker Quarterly”. This record-high PV module shipment volume represents 21% growth from the Q2’12 level of 4.8 GW. When the final results become available over the next few weeks they are expected to show that Chinese tier-one manufacturers, including Yingli Green Energy, Trina Solar, Jinko Solar, Renesola, and Hanwha SolarOne broke their quarterly module shipment records in Q2’13, Solarbuzz reports. Read more

Birmingham-based Solar Steel hits success ‘Backing Britain’

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 13:12 (Solarpowerportal)

Birmingham-based renewable energy mounting system manufacturer, Solar Steel, is seeking to boost British renewables with its ‘Backing Britain’ campaign. Read more

JA Solar and VDE Institute partner to highlight benefits of quality over cost

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 13:10 (PV-Tech)

Module manufacturer JA Solar is to partner with testing house VDE Institute to raise awareness on the benefits of using high quality solar products. Read more

Japanese trading company Sojitz to invest US$362 million across four mega solar projects

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 12:40 (PV-Tech)

Japanese trading corporation Sojitz has announced its first foray into the domestic solar power market, revealing that it will build four mega PV power stations with a combined capacity of 106MW. Read more

North Somerset Council consults over supplementary solar farm planning document

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 12:23 (Solarpowerportal)

Residents in North Somerset are being asked for their views on the development of solar farms in the area by their local council. Read more

Real Goods Solar strengthens eastern US business with Mercury acquisition

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 11:46 (PV-Tech)

Project developer Real Goods Solar (RGS) has announced it is set to buy Mercury Solar Systems. Read more

Western U.S. utilities call for increased inverter functionality with solar PV installations

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 11:26 (Solarserver)

A group of utilities and grid operators has issued a report which calls for the installation of “smart” inverters with enhanced functionality on all new solar photovoltaic (PV) plants to provide grid support in the Western United States and Canada. The Western Electric Industry Leaders (WEIL) is comprised of executives from more than a dozen public and private utilities, as well grid operators and government agencies in the electric sector. WEIL is calling upon state public service commissions and legislatures to act “decisively” to require new features on inverters including dynamic reactive power control. Read more

Real Goods Solar to acquire Mercury Solar

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 11:20 (Solarserver)

Real Goods Solar Inc. (Louisville, Colorado, U.S.) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Mercury Solar Systems (Port Chester, New York, U.S.) in a merger transaction, in exchange for 7.9 million newly issued shares of stock. The transaction is still subject to the approval of the shareholders of Real Goods and Mercury. If approved, Mercury will bring more than 50 employees to Real Goods, and a representative of Mercury's board of directors will be nominated to join Real Goods Solar's board. Read more

NPD Solarbuzz: Yingli Green breaks industry shipment record

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 9:36 (PV-Tech)

According to NPD Solarbuzz second quarter 2013, PV module shipments for the top 20 suppliers exceeded 5.8GW led by Yingli Green Energy shipments estimated to have exceed 800MW and over 1GW for the first-half of the year, a new record for any PV module manufacturer. Read more

Phoenix Solar returns to a narrow profit in Q2 2013

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 8:50 (Solarserver)

Phoenix Solar AG (Sulzemoos, Germany) has released results for the second quarter of 2013, reporting a 18% year-over-year fall to EUR 37.9 million (USD 50.5 million) in revenue and a 1% operating margin, its first positive result since 2010. 93% of Phoenix Solar's revenues were generated outside of Germany, which the company credits to its strategic reorientation. Orders fell 40% year-over-year to EUR 86.4 million (USD 115 million) by the end of the quarter, with 95% international orders, including orders from United States, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Read more

Q:How Many Solar Voters Does it Take To Change a Seat?

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 7:21 (Renewable Energy World)

On the 8th of August 2013, the Western Australian Government handed down a tough budget. Although Western Australia should be one of the worlds wealthiest State's due to it's massive endowment of minerals, the government somehow has a budget black hole. It was therefore no surprise to see some pretty deep cuts being made in Australia's biggest stat Read more

Dong Energy Working to Cut Offshore Wind Cost by 40% This Decade

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 16:16 (Renewable Energy World)

Dong Energy A/S, Denmark’s state- controlled utility, is leading a drive to cut offshore wind- power costs by as much as 40 percent by the end of the decade. Read more

New REC bonds look to incentivise investors on split plans

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 15:34 (PV-Tech)

Renewable Energy Corporation (REC) has announced a new US$110 million convertible bond offer and a partial repurchase offer of existing bonds as it looks to appease investors. Read more

German Utilities Hammered in Market Favoring Renewable Energy

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 15:34 (Renewable Energy World)

Germany, Europe’s biggest electricity market, is beating up its traditional utilities. RWE AG and EON SE are getting hurt by falling power prices and a shrinking market share this year. They’re set to report second-quarter earnings this week just as RBC Capital Markets said both may need to raise capital. Read more

São Paulo calls for 69% renewable energy by 2020

Monday, 8.12.2013 - 14:24 (Solarserver)

The Brazilian state of São Paulo has released its latest energy plan, which sets a goal of 69% renewable energy by 2020, up from 55% today. The Paulista Energy Plan (EPP) declares that the state should increase its biomass electricity generation from 4.8 GW to 13 GW, but also mentions wind and solar photovoltaics (PV). The plan states that the estimated necessary investment of USD 1.2 billion should come from partnering with the private sector. Read more