Off-grid PV in Africa: juwi directly couples PV array to existing diesel generator mini-grid

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 16:39 (Solarserver)

In order to reduce costs for diesel operated grids in rural Africa, where many villages suffer power shortages or outages, juwi’s off-grid division developed the Solar-Fuel-Saver, an intelligent system for integrating solar photovoltaic (PV) systems into diesel generator grids. What makes this hybrid system up to 60 percent cheaper than battery-operated Off-Grid systems is that it does not need batteries, juwi emphasizes. Read more

‘InPERC’ technology from RENA and SoLayTec provides customer with 18% cell efficiencies

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 15:15 (PV-Tech)

RENA has said that its inline passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) processing equipment ‘InPERC’ has achieved solar cell efficiencies at a customer site in China of 18%, without the use of selective emitter cell design. Read more

Tool Order: Komax Solar wins large equipment order from a major Asian manufacturer

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 18:15 (PV-Tech)

A major unidentified Asian PV module manufacturer has placed a large order with Komax Solar as part of a long-term strategic partnership, according to the company. Read more

IHS: Commercial solar set for storage boom

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 17:51 (Solarpowerportal)

Commercial PV storage is set to grow by a factor of 700 by 2017 to become the largest segment in the solar storage market, projections by IHS suggest. Read more

JinkoSolar to offer 3,500,000 shares

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 16:34 (Solarserver)

JinkoSolar Holding Co., Ltd. (Shanghai, China) announced an offering of 3,500,000 American Depositary Shares (ADSs), each representing four ordinary shares of the Company, at par value 0.00002 USD per share. Read more

New York energy authority bails out Long Island solar rebate programme

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 16:15 (PV-Tech)

Fresh funding has enabled a popular residential solar programme in Long Island to restart after it was suspended due to rising demand and budget constraints at the end of last month. Read more

Solana solar CSP project in Arizona begins test-basis electricity production

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 15:40 (Solarserver)

Arizona Public Service Co. (Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.) reports that the Solana Generating Station in Arizona has begun production of electricity on a test basis. The 280 MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in the U.S. state of Arizona will be by far the largest operational single-unit solar plant in the world when complete. It will also be one of the first large-scale CSP plants to come online in the United States in decades. Read more

Social Housing Association Spearheads UK Solar Renaissance

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 15:38 (Renewable Energy World)

In a move that may herald a return to large-scale solar development in the UK, Hampshire-based social housing association First Wessex and Welsh renewable energy developer Dulas have agreed on a plan to put solar panels on 800 affordable homes across the south of England. Read more

China Limits Solar Manufacturing, May Drive Consolidation

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 15:27 (Renewable Energy World)

China, the world’s biggest maker of solar panels, will limit construction of new photovoltaic manufacturing plants to curb excess capacity, a move that may spur consolidation within the industry. Read more

Energy Capital Group announces 300 MW solar PV project in Utah

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 15:24 (Solarserver)

Energy Capital Group LLC (ECG, Provo, Utah, U.S.) has secured land and begun the permitting process for a 300 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) plant in the U.S. state of Utah, in a location with an interstate high voltage DC (HVDC) line running directly to California. Read more

Solar Power Surges On Turkish Policy Backing

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 15:15 (Renewable Energy World)

Mid-June saw Turkey open applications for its first ever solar support programme, with licenses for up to 600 MW of capacity set to be issued across 27 regions. Read more

Pacwest Equities relocates US$100 million solar manufacturing line to Brazil

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 15:13 (PV-Tech)

PacWest Equities is to relocate its solar manufacturing line to Parana in Brazil. Read more

Pakistan issues LOI for 100 MW solar PV project in Cholistan

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 14:48 (Solarserver)

Pakistan's Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) has issued a letter of intent (LOI) for a 100 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project in the province of Punjab to M/s Table Rock Association (Nevada, U.S.). The plant will be located in the desert region of Cholistan. Read more

IHS: Commercial solar set for storage boom

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 14:13 (PV-Tech)

Commercial PV storage is set to grow by a factor of 700 by 2017 to become the largest segment in the solar storage market, projections by IHS suggest. Read more

IHS: Comercial solar set for storage boom

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 13:15 (PV-Tech)

Commercial PV storage is set to grow by a factor of 700 by 2017 to become the largest segment in the solar storage market, projections by IHS suggest. Read more

Abundance generation announces two new solar projects

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 12:50 (Solarpowerportal)

Renewable investment company, Abundance Generation, has announced two new solar projects totalling 2.4MWp of capacity. Read more

Abundance generation launches two new solar projects

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 12:50 (Solarpowerportal)

Renewable investment company, Abundance Generation, has announced the launch of two new solar projects, totalling 2.4MWp of capacity. Read more

Residential Solar in the Ontario microFIT Project: Three Families' Experiences

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 12:00 (Renewable Energy World)

The Ontario microFIT program was launched in 2009 as part of Ontario’s provincial government’s efforts to increase the production of renewable energy. The program provides participants with the opportunity to develop a “micro” renewable electricity generation project on their privately owned property that uses solar photovoltaic (PV), wind, waterpower, or bioenergy (biogas, biomass, landfill gas). I have asked three families who navigated the process of microFIT solar installations to share their experience by answering some questions. Read more

Solar thermal in India: New standards for vacuum tube collectors, storage tanks

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 9:04 (Solarserver)

The increasing share of Vacuum Tube Collector (VTC) systems imported to India took the Indian government to specify the standard requirements for evacuated solar collector tubes for non-concentrating solar thermal collectors and related storage tanks. The industry and the manufacturers welcomed the publication of the new standards, released for public debate in early March 2013, as the aim of the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is to keep low-quality systems out of the sector. Read more

Tongwei Group acquires LDK Hefei, including USD 462 million debt

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 8:50 (Solarserver)

Tongwei Group Ltd. (Chengdu, China) has won a government solicitation to acquire a subsidiary of LDK Solar Inc. (Xinyu City, China) for RMB 870 million (USD 142 million). According to NPD Solarbuzz (Santa Clara, California, U.S.) LDK Solar Hi-Tech (Hefei) Co. Ltd. (Hefei, China) brings 1.4 GW of PV cell and 300 MW of module capacity, and the acquisition will make Tongwei one of 15 largest PV cell makers in the world. However, the company also brings USD 462 million in debt. Read more

Northeast U.S. SREC-based solar PV markets slow to a trickle

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 8:31 (Solarserver)

The August 2013 SREC Markets Report by SRECTrade (San Francisco, California, U.S.) shows an ongoing slump in solar photovoltaic (PV) projects registered for SRECs in seven states in the U.S. Northeast. While PV projects registered for SRECs in the PJM Interconnect region improved slightly over July to reach 18.6 MW, they still represent a collapse from the 48 MW registered in June, mostly due to ongoing slowness in New Jersey, the region's largest market. Read more

The North American Hydropower Opportunity

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 3:38 (Renewable Energy World)

It is no secret that many renewable energy advocates are not in favor of large hydropower. The methods that have been used in the past to create its enormous energy generating facilities were sometimes destructive to the environment, flooding forests, destroying animal habitats and harming ecosystems.  The dams were often blamed for decreasing fish Read more

Manufacturer reduces electricity costs with rooftop PV

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 16:48 (Solarpowerportal)

Drainage product manufacturer, Wade International, has installed a 250KW rooftop array to reduce electricity costs. Read more

Agora Energiewende presents renewable energy surcharge calculator for German electricity prices

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 16:46 (Solarserver)

Agora Energiewende (Berlin, Germany) has developed a software to calculate the German renewable energy surcharge development for electricity by 2017. In just seconds, the tool not only calculates the cost of the renewable-energy levy, according to the renewable energy act (EEG) for the years up to 2017. It also shows the distribution of cash flows and the composition of remuneration in diagrams. Read more

Arista Power continues development of intelligent micro-grid system for the U.S. Army

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 16:42 (Solarserver)

Arista Power, Inc. (Rochester, N.Y.) has received a USD 625,000 contract from the U.S. Army to continue developing an intelligent micro-grid system in support of the U.S. Army Communications Electronics Research and Development Center's (CERDEC's) Command Power and Integration Renewable Energy for Distributed Under-Supplied Command Environments (REDUCE) program. The contract follows the good results of Arista Power's first two phases’ programs and calls for the company to provide demonstrated capability of an advanced Energy Resource Manager, besides the ability to utilize multiple energy storage systems of various chemistries within the same micro-grid system. Read more

300MW plant to power Utah and California

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 15:15 (PV-Tech)

Utility-scale renewables developer, Energy Capital Group (EGC), has announced the development of a 300MW plant in Millard County, Utah. Read more

Industry Leaders Urge EU to Support 2030 Renewable Energy Target

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 11:24 (Renewable Energy World)

The European Union should adopt a binding renewable energy target for 2030, Vestas Wind Systems A/S, Alstom SA and 59 other companies and associations said in a letter to the bloc’s policy makers. Read more

UK expects renewable energy to meet 37% of electricity demand by 2022

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 9:11 (Solarserver)

The UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) expects renewable energy to increase to meet over 37% of the nation's electricity demand by 2022, in its latest annual energy and emissions projections. This is roughly the same as 2012 projections, with lower expectations of renewable energy output coupled with lower projected electricity demand. The report expects renewable energy output to more than triple to 123.4 TWh in 2022, from 40.7 TWh in 2012. Read more

Solana CSP project in Arizona begins test-basis electricity production

Wednesday, 9.18.2013 - 8:45 (Solarserver)

Arizona Public Service Co. (Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.) reports that the Solana Generating Station in Arizona has begun production of electricity on a test basis. The 280 MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in the U.S. state of Arizona will be by far the largest operational single-unit solar plant in the world when complete. It will also be one of the first large-scale CSP plants to come online in the United States in decades. Read more