News of the year 2013

Date: 24.09.2013



Photovoltaics

Quadruple III-V bonded CPV cell hits 44.7% record conversion efficiency

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 18:15 (PV-Tech)

No longer a pipe dream of a 50% solar cell could be achievable, researchers at Fraunhofer ISE, CEA-Leti, Helmholtz Center Berlin and commercial CPV firm, Soitec have reached a world record 44.7% conversion efficiency of a novel III-V-based solar cell. The new record efficiency was measured at a concentration of 297 suns. Read more


Thermal Power/Heating

Mercedes-Benz focuses new campaign on CSP plant Gemasolar

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 21:32 (Solarserver)

Mercedes-Benz (Stuttgart, Germany) started its worldwide “Pioneer at Work” campaign for the new Sprinter van, choosing the concentrating solar power (CSP) plant Gemasolar owned by Torresol Energy (Getxo, Spain) as the main setting. The CSP plant in Fuentes de Andalucìa (Spain) includes a 15 hour molten salt storage and is the world’s first concentrating solar power plant capable of producing power round the clock exclusively by means of solar energy. Read more

SolarCity and Viridian cooperate to provide clean electricity 24/7

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 21:28 (Solarserver)

SolarCity (San Mateo, California, U.S.) and Viridian Energy (Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.) are teaming up to offer solar electricity to homeowners at a discount to their current electricity rates through Viridian’s 20,000-contractor network. Through this partnership, which is expected to expand its reach in 2014, customers will be able to have access to clean energy day and night while reducing their utility bills, the partners announced. Read more

Unit 1 of the Ivanpah solar CSP plant synced to the grid

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 19:56 (Solarserver)

On September 24th, 2013, NRG Solar LLC (Carlsbad, California, U.S.) announced that Unit 1 of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Station (SEGS) has been synced to the power grid for the first time. The 377 MW-AC concentrating solar power (CSP) project is located in Southern California near the border with the U.S. state of Nevada. Read more

Trade War: SolarWorld counsel ‘highly sceptical’ of SEIA resolution

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 19:50 (PV-Tech)

Counsel to SolarWorld Industries America and the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM), responded to SEIA’s draft resolution as “highly sceptical”. Read more

Trade War: SolarWorld counsel ‘highly skeptical’ of SEIA resolution

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 19:50 (PV-Tech)

Counsel to SolarWorld Industries America and the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM), responded to SEIA’s draft resolution as “highly sceptical”. Read more

Trade War: SolarWorld counsel “highly skeptical” of SEIA resolution

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 19:15 (PV-Tech)

Counsel to SolarWorld Industries America and the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM), responded to SEIA’s draft resolution as “highly skeptical”. Read more

Zhongli Talesun completes sale of 19.7MW PV plant in Germany

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 18:15 (PV-Tech)

Zhongli Talesun has completed the sale of a 19.7MW solar power plant in Brandenburg, Germany to investment company LHI Group. Read more

US Solar Manufacturing Woes: Helios Shutters Plant, 1SolTech Slapped with State Lawsuit

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 18:12 (Renewable Energy World)

Just before the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) announced its encouraging plan to resolve the U.S.-China solar panel trade dispute, two of the few-remaining U.S. solar panel manufacturers released some disheartening news. Helios USA announced that it would halt its operations, and 1SolTech received a lawsuit and temporary restraining order from the Texas Attorney General. Read more

It’s Time To End Disruptive U.S.-China Solar Trade Dispute

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 15:29 (Renewable Energy World)

Trade disputes often have a nasty way of becoming trade wars. With no end in sight to the ongoing solar dispute between the United States and China — and tensions now escalating — the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) today offered an industry compromise designed to end the standoff.  We believe our proposal could serve as the centerpiece Read more

Sempra partners with ConEdison to develop two solar plants

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 15:15 (PV-Tech)

Sempra US Gas and Electric has partnered with renewable energy project developer and operator, ConEdison Development to run two of Sempra’s solar plants. Read more

Order Focus: Mecasolar signs supply contract for Australia’s largest solar farm

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 14:15 (PV-Tech)

Following an agreement with Acciona Energy Oceania, solar PV structure manufacturer Mecasolar will supply the fixed structure to a 24MWp capacity solar farm in Australia. Read more

Solar district heating growing rapidly in Denmark

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 8:52 (Solarserver)

The collector area of solar district heating systems in Denmark has increased 3.5 times in four years to reach 224,000 square meters in 2012, according to a report by Marstal District Heating (Marstal, Denmark) published by Solar Thermal World. Solar district heating plants with another 350,000 square meters of collector are planned. The company reports that along with the increase in size more systems are being built to incorporate combined heat and power (CHP) and heat storage. Read more

Italian courts seize Global Solar Fund's PV plants

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 8:44 (Solarserver)

A district court in Brindisi, Italy has seized solar photovoltaic (PV) plants constructed by companies associated with Global Solar Fund SCA Sicar (GSF, Luxembourg). In this and previous court actions, 37 GSF PV plants totaling 30 MW have been seized, which represents 21% of GSF's PV assets. The courts have also ordered the seizure of feed-in tariffs received by investee companies of GSF that own the PV plants, and several people have been served detention orders. The main allegations against GSF are potentially improper operation related to authorization issues, planning and environmental crimes, as well as improper collection of feed-in tariffs. Read more

Solarbuzz: UK solar PV market will finally stabilize in 2013

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 8:39 (Solarserver)

NPD Solarbuzz Inc. (Santa Clara, California, U.S.) has released additional details on the UK solar photovoltaic (PV) market in the first half of 2013, noting that the large majority of capacity was supported by the renewables obligation (RO) as opposed to feed-in tariffs. The company also predicts that PV demand will stabilize in the second half of 2013, making this the first year of such a pattern following boom-and bust markets caused by policy chaos. This effect was seen as recently as the second quarter of 2013, when installations fell to only 282 MW due to reduced RO levels for PV. Read more

Lazard: U.S. utility-scale solar PV costs have fallen to USD 0.071-0.082/kWh

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 8:30 (Solarserver)

Lazard Ltd. (New York City) has released a new report which finds that the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems utilizing leading technologies has fallen more than 50% in the last four years, to reach USD 0.089-0.104/kWh in the United States without subsidies. “Lazard's Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis-Version 7.0” notes that PV is now a competitive source of peak energy as compared to conventional generation in many parts of the world, without subsidies. The study finds that U.S. residential-scale PV remains expensive as compared to utility-scale PV, at USD 0.149-0.204/kWh without subsidies. Read more

Trade War: SEIA drafts solution to China-US solar dispute

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 7:15 (PV-Tech)

US trade body the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has proposed a solution to the US-China trade dispute in the form of a ‘Solar Manufacturing Settlement Fund’, with funding to come from Chinese companies, to assist US solar manufacturers grow the US market. Read more

Soitec sets new solar PV cell efficiency world record at 44.7%

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 2:13 (Solarserver)

Soitec SA (Bernin, France) has produced a solar photovoltaic (PV) cell with a conversion efficiency of 44.7% at a concentration of 297 suns, in collaboration with Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE (Freiburg, Germany), CEA-Leti (Grenoble, France) and the Helmholtz Center Berlin. Read more


Biomass/Pellets

There are no news available

 



Wind Energy

Germanwatch and Dii sign MoU on solar and wind energy deployment in the Middle East and North Africa

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 21:37 (Solarserver)

NGO Germanwatch Nord-Süd-Initiative e.V. (Bonn, Germany) and the industrial initiative Dii (Munich, Germany) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Dii’s shareholder and partner meeting in Kassel. Both organizations are committed to the development of solar and wind energy capacity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This cooperation will especially help to shape the dialogue about desert power with civil society groups in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Read more

Massachusetts Utilities Sign PPA for Wind Energy That Is Cheaper than Coal

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 15:40 (Renewable Energy World)

Three utilities have grouped together to purchase more wind energy at a rate averaging less than $0.08 per kWh, which beats most other generation sources. Read more

Updated: Massachusetts Utilities Sign PPA for Wind Energy That Is Cheaper than Coal

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 15:40 (Renewable Energy World)

Three utilities have grouped together to purchase more wind energy at a rate averaging less than $0.08 per kWh, which beats most other generation sources. Read more

Dutch Wind Turbine Purchase Sets World Crowdfunding Record

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 12:56 (Renewable Energy World)

Raising €1.3 million in just thirteen hours, 1700 Dutch households that came together to buy shares in a wind turbine have set a new world record for crowdfunding. Read more


Hydropower

Refurbishing Hydropower to Increase Project Life and Boost Capacity

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 12:00 (Renewable Energy World)

The longevity of hydropower installation infrastructure makes them typically great candidates for refurbishment and repowering. By maximising energy yields and functionality from an existing hydro resource, environmental impacts are minimised while assets can be given a whole new lease of life. Read more


Hydrogen/Fuel Cell

There are no news available

 



Geo Thermal/Heat Pump

There are no news available

 



Energy Policy/Climate/CO2

Yingli Green Energy promotes clean PV industry production in China

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 21:42 (Solarserver)

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Ltd. (Baoding, China) will jointly compile The Clean Production Evaluation Index System of Photovoltaic Industry, the first evaluation system of the PV industry in the People’s Republic of China. The aim is to establish a benchmark for clean production in the Chinese solar photovoltaic (PV) industry and promote cleaner production and high-efficient consumption of energy through technical transformation and product upgrades. Read more

Labour pledges to freeze energy prices till 2017

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 20:06 (Solarpowerportal)

Labour leader Ed Miliband pledged to freeze electricity and energy bills till 2017 if Labour wins the next election. Read more

America's Power Plan: A New Series on Rapid Change in the US Power Sector

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 13:00 (Renewable Energy World)

Game-changing new technologies, consumer demand for cleaner, more efficient energy, an aging and increasingly obsolete grid, dramatic reductions in the cost of renewables — these are among the many forces radically reshaping America’s electricity sector. Analysts agree we are at a pivotal moment in America’s energy history. Decisions and investment Read more

BDI calls for end to German feed-in tariffs in energy policy paper

Tuesday, 9.24.2013 - 8:20 (Solarserver)

The Federation of German Industries (BDI) has called for a reform of Germany's renewable energy policies including elimination of the nation's system of feed-in tariffs, in a paper released days before federal elections. “Energy Transition Holistic Thinking” calls for a shift to market instruments and market integration of renewable energy in place of feed-in tariffs. This is similar to the policy proposals of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which will be eliminated from the federal government following its failure to win 5% of the vote on September 22nd, 2013. Read more


Solar-/Electromobil

There are no news available

 



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