JinkoSolar to take over Topoint solar PV manufacturing

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 21:08 (Solarserver)

JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd. (Shanghai) has agreed to operate the manufacturing assets of the four companies that comprise Topoint (Haining, China), starting on January 13th, 2014. This includes 500 MW of annual silicon wafer capacity, 500 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) cell capacity, and 100 MW of PV module capacity. Read more

Chile to build 110MW CSP tower

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 17:52 (PV-Tech)

Chile’s Ministry of Energy and government agency for entrepreneurship, COFO, has awarded a tender for South America’s first concentrated solar power (CSP) plant. Read more

Panasonic to offer 19.4% efficient solar PV modules in Europe

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 16:31 (Solarserver)

Panasonic Corp.'s (Osaka, Japan) Eco Solutions subsidiary has launched two new solar photovoltaic (PV) modules for the European market, the HIT-N240 and the HIT-N245. These modules offer 19.0% and 19.4% conversion efficiency, respectively. These are some of the highest efficiencies among commercially available PV modules. The N240 will be available in January 2014, with the N245 becoming available in spring 2014. Read more

SolarCity reaches 32% share of U.S. residential solar PV market

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 15:48 (Solarserver)

GTM Research (Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.) has found that SolarCity (San Mateo, California, U.S.) climbed to a 32% market share in the residential segment of the U.S. solar photovoltaic (PV) market in the third quarter of 2013. Read more

When’s the Best Day to Send an E-Newsletter and 4 Other Solar Marketing Insights for 2014

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 15:29 (Renewable Energy World)

Marketing solar is unique, but we can certainly learn from other industry marketing trends. One great resource is Marketing Sherpa, which recently published some terrific insights from a survey of non-solar marketers and their plans for 2014. Here are some key takeaways and how I think they might apply to solar: 1. Send emails on Tuesdays. Accordin Read more

Goldpoly to acquire 500 MW of solar PV projects, plants

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 15:21 (Solarserver)

Goldpoly New Energy Holdings Ltd. (Hong Kong) has entered into a cooperation agreement with two Chinese companies to acquire roughly 500 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects and completed plants in China, Europe, North America and Japan. Read more

China Development Bank releases project finance to SPI Solar

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 15:12 (PV-Tech)

A long running saga between China Development Bank, LDK Solar and its EPC subsidiary in the US, SPI Solar, over withheld project finance agreements due to LDK Solar’s distressed financial situation has been resolved. Read more

JinkoSolar adds 500MW of cell and wafer capacity with Topoint acquisition

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 15:03 (PV-Tech)

JinkoSolar has acquired the manufacturing assets of the struggling Topoint group of companies. Read more

Hareon Solar to invest US$294 million in 200MW of northern China projects

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 13:51 (PV-Tech)

China-based PV manufacturer Hareon Solar has announced that it will develop 200MW of solar power plants in northern China, after the company’s board of directors approved CNY1.78 billion (US$294 million) of investment. Read more

SolarCity extends US market share lead, says GTM

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 12:11 (PV-Tech)

Residential installer SolarCity has widened its lead over its competitors by increasing its US market share to 32% during 2013, according to research by Green Tech Media (GTM). Read more

California’s 579MW Solar Star begins partial operation

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 11:51 (PV-Tech)

California’s 579MW Solar Star project has begun partial operation and is now supplying electricity to California’s grid. Read more

Renewable heating to fuel the energy transition within the heating market; Intersolar Europe 2014 introduces renewable heating as new area of focus

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 10:58 (Solarserver)

Greater attention must be paid to generating renewable heat if the climate protection targets set in Germany and around the world are to be met. At 40%, the heating market accounts for the largest proportion of energy consumed in Germany and therefore holds considerable potential for the country to reduce its CO2 emissions. Existing buildings and, in particular, their heating systems provide many opportunities for this. In fact, modern heating systems not only lower the amount of CO2 released by fossil fuels but also cause heating costs to decrease considerably. The demands on policy makers to ensure that the heating market plays a more significant role in the energy transition Read more

NPD Solarbuzz: U.S. PV market grows to 4.2 GW in 2013

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 9:00 (Solarserver)

Solar photovoltaic (PV) markets in the United States grew 15% to 4.2 GW in 2013, according to a new report from NPD Solarbuzz (Santa Clara, California, U.S.). This includes 1.4 GW of PV installed in the fourth quarter of 2013, a new record. Ground-mounted PV plants represented the majority of capacity installed, reaching almost 3 GW over the course of 2013. This compares to 500 MW in the large rooftop market and 700 MW of residential PV systems and other small-scale rooftop plants. Read more

South Korea's solar thermal market grows 17% in 2012

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 8:23 (Solarserver)

South Korea's solar thermal market grew 17% in 2012 with 63,800 square meters of collector area installed, according to statistics published by Solarthermalworld. Systems larger than 300 square meters represented 22% of this collector area, and systems smaller than 12 square meters only 30%. A number of policies have been driving the Korean solar thermal market. These include both mandatory solar thermal requirements for government and public buildings, as well as a law that requires minimum spending on renewable energy for new and renovated buildings above a certain size. Read more

US Auto Factory Chooses Wind Energy for On-site Power Generation

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 16:18 (Renewable Energy World)

ConEdison Solutions, the energy services unit of Consolidated Edison Inc., is providing electricity from two wind turbines to a Honda Motor Co. factory in Ohio, reducing the site’s demand from local power companies. Read more

Familiar Holiday Wind Rush a Little Different This Year

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 14:00 (Renewable Energy World)

If you’ve been around wind energy a little while, you know that it’s not unusual for the industry to rev up in the fourth quarter of a given year. The industry turned a little frenetic at the end of 2013, all right, but the nature of the activity was quite different from the usual holiday rush. Rather than reports streaming in about new projects going online, this year’s holiday news was filled with construction starts, turbine orders, and power purchase agreements. Read more

Geothermal Industry Partnerships Push the Innovation Envelope

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 15:19 (Renewable Energy World)

Geothermal energy is a clean, green, renewable source of power that faces challenges regarding costs and project timelines. One company has found a way to improve the margins by adopting innovative technology to help achieve higher efficiencies, reduce maintenance costs and improve the reliability of 30 condenser fans at its geothermal power plant in the Oregon desert. Read more

PV provided 7% of Italy’s electricity in 2013, says transmission operator

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 12:47 (PV-Tech)

Early data for 2013 electricity demand released by Terna, Italy’s electrical transmission system operator, indicates that 7% of electricity produced domestically was generated through PV last year. Read more

EU Committees propose binding 2030 target on renewable energy

Friday, 1.10.2014 - 8:52 (Solarserver)

Two committees of the European Parliament are calling for an ambitious and legally-binding 2030 target for renewable energy in a draft resolution introduced on January 9th, 2014. This follows a letter co-signed by eight member states including France, Germany and Italy to the EU Commission calling for such a target. The letter is supported by the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, the second-largest group in the EU Parliament. Read more